Week 1: Introduction

Salvador Hernandez

Email: salvadorthernandez@gmail.com

Introduction
I like making short term academic goals and checking them off as I go so that I can make new ones, each one bringing me closer to my career goals. As I advance ever so closer towards my Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Graduating May 2018), my classes are becoming increasingly challenging, yet more captivating in the material. Attending San Jose State University is such a blessing because of the knowledge that professors and peers share with one another. I always aim to learn something new every day and pursue what I want by communicating well with others. Since people will spend almost three-fourths of their life in the professional world it makes logical sense to do something that will enhance your life fruitfulness. My career goal is not just about making progress to get ahead day to day, but also do learn new things and accumulate new experiences because it adds to richness in thought and knowledge. My ideal career is one in which I can use my engineering profession to contribute to innovation that will help society flourish in an efficient and eco-friendly way. As an analogy, I had an amazing opportunity working for Play-Well TEKnologies for over a year as an Engineering Lego Instructor leading dozens of courses myself while inspiring young innovators to work together and tackle exciting objectives. It has helped me prepare for my future plans by solidifying my desire to want to give back to society. I want to continue that gratification I saw in those young innovators when they created something working together. This is why I want to work on automated transit networks and SPARTAN SUPERWAY offers great opportunity.

A Little Background
I believe that the most special attribute that sets me apart from everyone else is the strong drive I have to always want to create or implement something better than there already is. This drive I have is a result from the curiosity I have developed ever since I was a young boy playing with the iconic Lego pieces. My dad, a US Army Soldier Veteran who specialized as an Army Vehicle Mechanic, is my role model because he has an aptitude of figuring out what’s causing the problem to something simply by being patient enough to learn how it needs to work and applying a solution himself. This attribute has developed in me naturally, especially after seeing how he partook in remodeling our house from a one story house to a two story house. Tearing down the old house and seeing how to build a better, bigger house really captivated me in terms of the hard work and design considerations that went into the build. The construction had left a surplus of materials left over and my dad supported me in building my own tiny home in the backyard. Needless to say, I was eight and I had built a tiny home the size of a small bedroom with a window, water proof roofing, insulation, and electricity using a few tools. I learned so much on that build from basic geometry to structural support to safely operating power tools. I have always thought of myself as an inventor even though I was really experimenting with mechanisms that have already been built, but for me its more about learning as much I can because it is a joy to me and that is my advantage over others. For example, both in middle school and high school I broke science records by making my self-powered mechanical car surpass the 2-meter distance goal by a staggering 24 meters over, which I got academically awarded for; and by making a 20-gram balsa wood bridge capable of holding the target weight of 100 lbs., which mine withheld a limited 1165 lbs. because the school ran out of weights., respectively. Thinking intuitively is something I encompass because it pushes me to design, develop, build, and test mechanically the creative ideas I think of. I like to believe that I was molded by the engineering aptitude as I grew up. Even till this day, I have loved every struggle for what I have learned, especially team working with peers in the field of engineering.