About Me

Hello Everyone; I am a Mechanical Engineer Major and I have always been passionate about anything mechanical. Being so closed to graduation I decided to join this class because I want to use what I learn here to help transform people's lives.

I was born and raised in Costa Rica a country with no Military and the best coffee in the world. However coming from a country with no military I gladly served in the US Navy from 2009-2014 while drinking coffee that looks like muddy water and tastes like turpentine, after being honorably discharged I attended and graduated from T.C.C. where I got my Associates and later transferred to O.D.U.

I try to follow the Costarican Pura Vida lifestyle which is a way of celebrating the simple things in life, spend time with your loved ones, and I am always willing to learn something new.

After completing the Innovate Monarchs program I have found that O.D.U. is in the right track when it comes to inclusion awareness and I believe that if this effort continues O.D.U. can position itself as a leading school when it comes to helping shape the future of minority communities giving new opportunities to families by empowering those who seek to become better

Innovate Monarchs Experience

Our Innovate team goal was to find a solution to reduce the stigma of asking for help by proposing the idea that O.D.U. should engage with these students before they need help.

Anytime a new students comes to campus, either because it is a freshman student or a transfer student from another institution the transition can be difficult and stressful. After many discussions with our team we all agreed that people would seek for help when they were in need of assistance and many times it was too late, so our solution was to have the school have a series of small meetings with this new students to familiarize them with campus physically and online, help them know where places like the math center, the library, food courts and parking are.

Since we had members in our team that started in O.D.U. as transfer students and freshman it was easier to understand the need of both cases. We had all been in the position where the need for a T.A. sometimes came too late due to our busy lives and University commitments. However, we still conducted surveys to further understand where we could create a bigger impact.

Mindsets of a Human-Centered Designer

I practiced the Innovation is for Everyone mindset when I had to share a lot of ideas in a group of people with different backgrounds, in which some of us are not familiar with other peoples cultural backgrounds during our process. This taught me that we had a great opportunity to come up with a lot of solutions thanks to our diversity.

I practiced the Know Your Why mindset when I had to continue collaborating with solutions to problems that sometimes did not look like a fast fix during our process. This taught me that perseverance pays off.

I practiced the Show & Tell mindset when I had to speak in front of the group in our weekly zoom meetings during our process. This taught me that everyone has a point of view and show and tell is also about listening to others.

I practiced the Radical Collaboration mindset when I had to dig deep on finding solutions to some of the problems we had regarding how to find resources. contact faculty and staff to help us find a solution during our process. This taught me that some solutions are hard to find but radical collaboration can be very beneficial

I practiced the Empathetic & Human-Centered mindset when I had to understand peoples point of views, specially those who experience school in a different way, like different Major Concentrations, past experiences or age difference. This taught me that it is important to listen more, so everyone can get their point across since every opinion is important.

I practiced the Embrace Ambiguity mindset everyday not only in our meetings but as a daily habit. In this day and age it is important that we look beyond our differences and embrace ambiguity during our lives. This taught me that everybody deserves to be treated equal.

I practiced the Iterate, Iterate, Iterate mindset when I had to congregate with the group to find solutions to our quest on how to reduce the stigma of asking for help during our process. This taught me that repetition is the key to success

Applying Innovate Experience in the Future

After been part of this group one of the things that have come to mind the most is, that educational institutions are not just bricks and mortar and that there are people who we might run across in the passage ways or outdoor areas that can be impacting our lives without us even noticing, many times for us we find this people when we actually need them, either because we have questions for a T.A. on a certain subject or financial questions that need to be addressed, that is why I believe it would be important that all transfer students have an introduction of the departments that will help them get trough school to achieve the goal of getting a higher education