Jared Lopez
Hi, my name is Jared Lopez and I am a first year student at Moorpark College. I am pursuing an associate's degree in Engineering from Moorpark College with hopes of transferring to UCLA to get my bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering!
As a kid, I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. The only thing that really fascinated me was space exploration. Even then, I still didn’t know what I could become with that interest. My brother was the one that said I could become an Engineer and hopefully work at NASA in the future. Yet, as I grew older, I still did not know what I wanted to pursue in my life.
It was in my senior year of high school that I felt I had wasted so much time not investing more time into my future. I was stuck not knowing what I was passionate about. I wasn’t involved in my community, and my college essays were a mess. I was applying with just some sliver of hope that I might get accepted into some schools. As it turned out, I wasn’t accepted into any university that I wanted to go to. So my end result was to go to Moorpark with the goal of transferring to a university. On top of that, I had just chosen to major in engineering because I enjoyed math and science classes. It was the only logical choice that I had. I still wasn’t even sure what I was really passionate about.
As the son of two immigrants from Yucatan, Mexico, my parents always emphasized the importance of pursuing an education. They sacrificed so much to give my brother and I a better life in the United States. My parents never even got to finish high school back in Mexico. Even today, my dad holds down two jobs just to support my brother and I while we both work towards obtaining stable careers in the near future. My dad currently wakes up at 2am, goes to work until 12pm, comes back home, sleeps for 3 hours, and then goes to work at his other job from 3:30pm to 9pm. My mom also works a side job cleaning houses on the weekdays for a few hours of the day. As a result, money is something that would stress me out frequently. Thankfully, I worked throughout highschool and am currently able to support myself without my parents having to help me even more. However, I do worry that my dad overworks himself, and if he has enough money to keep supporting my family while my brother and I stay in school. This causes me to feel immense pressure everyday, while also having a mild fear of ending up a failure, and not making my parents proud.
When I first enrolled at Moorpark, I wasn’t sure what to expect on campus. I wasn’t sure if the professors were going to care about me or what opportunities I was going to have there. However, what I came to realize is that Moorpark is home to a lot of amazing people and resources. I have a good relationship with all my professors and it’s easy to tell that they want to see their students succeed. My chemistry professor, Vincent Crisostomo, is one of those amazing people that provided me with amazing resources, one of these resources being C6 LSAMP.
Through LSAMP, there is the opportunity to have a class embedded tutor (CET) in one of my courses. For example, in my chemistry class I have a CET named Evelyn. I regularly attended her tutoring sessions and it was an amazing help as she provided top notch practice problems and explanations that were key to being able to pass all of my chemistry tests this semester. A CET was much more convenient than just normal tutoring in the library because of how she provided the resources for my specific chemistry class. Not to mention how easy it was to come in contact with her whether it was through her weekly live sessions or through email.
Additionally, I was able to participate in a field trip to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for a research symposium. On this field trip, I was able to get amazing introductions to the many different engineering fields. I witnessed the work that these different fields would specialize in. For example, I saw that at Cal Poly SLO, students involved in the aerospace field are actually able to work on satellites that they can send into orbit. This was spectacular to me, as it came full circle with my interest in space exploration as a young child. I was always fascinated by the stars above, and with the possibility of being able to send a satellite into space through an engineering career, it invoked a new passion within me. I was able to see that these students were a part of a bigger cause. It was there on the field trip at Cal Poly SLO where I realized that I did have a passion for engineering.
My passion in life was to be a part of a cause greater than myself. Through engineering, I felt like this was possible. I had already enjoyed the rigorous coursework that the major had to offer. On top of that, I could end up working at SpaceX, NASA, or even Boeing, which sounded like a dream to me. I could hopefully be a part of a mission that would help our society indefinitely. Without LSAMP, I wouldn’t have gone on that field trip, and I would not have been so sure on why I wanted to continue studying engineering.
Now, I have no doubts that I will make my parents proud and be able to repay them for all their sacrifices when my brother and I embark on our respective careers, as an engineer and a lawyer. Through the resources that Moorpark has to offer, such as the amazing professors, clubs, LSAMP, and tutoring, I have no doubts that my dream of becoming an Engineer will be possible. My end goal in my life is to be a part of a bigger mission, and I will manifest it.
