Although I was originally born in Denver, Colorado, I moved to Mexico just a few months later and eventually moved to a very small town in Texas named Hereford. My journey to Rice began with one of my friends telling me about a program named QuestBridge that helped FLGI students make their way to top universities. After months of applications I was accepted to Rice and before I knew it I was walking to class while sweating and talking to my new friends. My whole life I thought I would study CS but after realizing that sitting behind a computer all day isn’t my idea of a fulfilling career, I decided to change to electrical engineering in hopes of being able to build devices all day and create tangible change in the world around me. However, if I was told that I would never have to work or study again I would probably finish my studies and then setup shop in my garage, trying to build an iron man suit or something. I wanted to study abroad because I had never been to Europe and I would be the first in my family to have ever done so. Outside of an amazing travel opportunity, the chance to take classes that will help me work towards the engineering design minor was the perfect combination. While in Amsterdam I hope to explore the city as much as possible and just appreciate what it’s like to walk around in a world that is so different from everywhere else I’ve ever been. While in every other aspect of my life I make a plan before acting, when traveling and exploring I find having a sort of general idea and then going with the flow is the best approach. When we were first told we were working with UvA students I was nervous that I would come off as “too American” or not be able to represent the university in the correct way. However, even after just seconds of meeting my team we began getting along and I knew that I had nothing to worry about. They were all very nice and I’m excited to work more with them and be able to create some sort of solution for e-waste.