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Mercedes Hernandez Highlight
Being in your comfort zone is cozy and warm but it’s not going to take you to the next step.
About Mercedes
- I was born and raised in Venezuela.
- I earned my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela.
- I knew that I wanted to travel and work overseas and I also wanted to go deeper into mechanical engineering, so earning a U.S. graduate degree was the best option.
- The first thing I wanted to do was improve my English, so I found a good ESL program at the University of Delaware.
- While at the university, I met graduate students who encouraged me to apply for the Ph.D. program—I was accepted the next year and was able to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.
- During my Ph.D. program, I did some work in modeling—which is what I do today—but I was mainly focused on researching coatings for aerospace turbines.
- After graduating, I started my career as a software engineer for Intel but realized after a few years that the environment wasn’t a great fit for me.
- I joined Qorvo as a packaging engineer and have since worked my way up to staff development engineer.