I’m Ariana, and I’ve been a student of engineering nearly all my life. I was lucky to start school right when STEM became a big push in my community, and my elementary school had the resources to start a VEX Robotics club. I didn’t know it then, but that club would shape my future. From that point on, I fell in love with all things math and engineering. Growing up, I could tell I was different from other students, I loved math. To be fair, I wasn’t out here doing math for fun in my free time. My parents signed me up for tutoring alongside my sister, and I just happened to be there on her first day when they asked if I wanted to try it too. I said yes, took a placement test, did decent, and kept going. By 5th grade I was ahead of my class, learning topics I wouldn’t have seen in school for years. I remember memorizing my first real formula, the Pythagorean theorem, a² + b² = c². It was my first time doing trigonometry, and I found it so rewarding learning new concepts and finding out the formulas I used had been derived by real people centuries ago. A couple years later, I started taking engineering classes in middle and high school, and that experience showed me what engineering could really be. Going into college, I wasn’t originally planning to pursue engineering — something that shocks anyone I tell now. I’d planned to join GCU’s Cybersecurity program; I’d heard it was solid, well-supported, and paid well. But about a month before school started, I realized I wasn’t excited to go. I was debating engineering instead, but I didn’t think I was smart enough. I’d been told my whole life that engineering was hard, and only smart people should pursue it. In the back of my mind I kept thinking: what if I wasn’t smart enough, then what? Looking back, it’s clear I wasn’t ready to give up on engineering, and I’m glad I didn’t. On campus, GCU has several engineering clubs, including the Society of Women Engineers, an inviting group of women developing their skills together. I couldn’t join freshman year because of scheduling, but this past year I’ve been fully involved, and I’ve loved every moment. We hosted a community outreach event where middle schoolers came to campus and learned to code and blink an LED. A project I remember from the first time I ever coded, sort of like an engineer’s rite of passage. It brought me back to when I was younger, and I realized: had there been no resources for me to get that experience growing up, I might never have ended up in engineering or realized this was an option for me. Since then, I’ve wanted to grow my impact on the community by making sure students at GCU and in Phoenix have access to the same resources I did. I’m currently working with a group of students on campus to start a new club dedicated to building up our Hispanic community through constant volunteering and outreach in the Phoenix area. By the time I graduate, I hope there are young girls in engineering, or students in my community, whom I was able to influence and show that you can be in engineering no matter what, no matter your background or hardships. The same way my community worked to bring me opportunities growing up, forming me into the person I am now.