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Chriselle Galapon Highlight
Chriselle Galapon
Assistant Thermal Systems Engineer,
National Solar Observatory - Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope
At the end of the day, it's all you. Who cares what other people think? You have to do what makes you happy.
About Chriselle
- When she was in high school, she took place in competitions building bridges, small planes, and rockets.
- But when she started at community college, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her life.
- Her family really wanted her to go to medical school, but she just felt lost.
- When she transferred into the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, she thought she wanted to go into mechanical engineering.
- The program proved to be difficult, so she took a year off; the break made her realize how much she missed engineering.
- After returning and graduating, she wanted to stay near her family, but was worried there weren’t many opportunities for engineers in Maui.
- She joined the Akamai Workforce Initiative, a networking/mentoring program for Hawaii’s scientific and technical workforce.
- Through Akamai, she was able to find a career on Maui, working on the construction of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.
