Milestones

My road in life has been direct.
I am from Colombia, I didn't know English at all. My parents brought me here at the age of 14.
I hated the ESL program in High School. My first goal was to get out of it.
Learned english 6 months later. Joined high school marching band, soccer, orchestra, and spanish club.
Became the leader of my instrument section, and represented my high school in Spanish Club at state level.
Represented high school in music band around all the state. Best math student of the year.
Graduated with a 3.9 I think. I had in theory the potential to apply to a TON of scholarships but...
I was denied to do so because I was not a resident. I wasn't able to continue my education for a year.
I skipped 2 years when I came from Colombia because of my good grades (I think a have a great story).

Career

Specialist RAN Engineer

I design, troubleshoot, and model different projects in the AT&T wireless network.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Engineering
Technology
Learning / Being Challenged

Day to Day

The great thing about my job is that it is not the same month after month. I work in a Technical Development Program at AT&T, this means I get to taste a little bit of many amazing tasks and jobs that happened in the company. Sometimes I have to model the coverage of a cell site to see its performance, sometimes I have to physically drive around a cell site and gather data to analyze its performance. Other days I have to track milestones for the design of the towers as they are building them, etc.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for high school students

If you want to become an engineer, the first step is to establish your identity. What I mean by this is, when you start your engineering path - you must focus on that. This career requires all of your focus and energy. You must be good at MATH and SCIENCE, (to be honest, you must be excellent). These topics must be easy for you. If they are not, it is time to start pushing yourself to get better at them, or else you won't succeed.

Recommended Education

My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Society in General:

"Noise.... Well I was the best I could be at high school and I was denied to continue my education because of my legal status. Look how other friends are now studying, and you are not... all that stuff you did in high school was for nothing...."

Challenges I Overcame

Financial
First-Generation Immigrant
First-Generation College Student