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Who Am I?
My name is Karla Lopez Sanchez. I am currently a 1st year Electrical Engineering masters student at the University of Southern California. Getting to where I am has been a road full of obstacles, but thanks to many amazing people in my life, I have been able to reach many of my goals. I would like to share a little bit about myself in this website to motivate students from backgrounds like mine.
A little about me:
Coming from a low-income background and overcoming the obstacles throughout my life have helped me become the person with huge aspirations and goals that I am today. I came to this country when I was 13. At this young age, I faced the cultural differences of living in a new place where I didn't speak the language, didn't know about the culture, and didn't know anybody. All while at the same time transitioning into an adult while my parents were in a different country. My biggest influence in life is my sister. She has always supported me and has always been a role model for me.
I am a first generation Mexican woman in engineering. I feel very proud of saying that because I know that not too many people get to make that statement. Pursuing a career in engineering has not been easy, being a woman in the workplace is tough due to the unfairness that exists out there for us. Also, coming from a Hispanic background and dealing with people who constantly belittle your race is very difficult.
The reason why I brought up my race, gender, and career is because one of the biggest dilemmas that I have encountered in my life is surprisingly correlated to these three things that I am so proud of.
Being able to attend college has being the biggest problem I have encountered. When I graduated high school I got into UCLA, but coming from a low income background I could not afford attending school there so I had to delay my education there. I attended community college to complete my lower division courses while at the same time working towards getting an associates degree. It was a very hard decision to give up on my dream of going to UCLA just because of the financial hardships I faced. People around me were saying that UCLA was a school for privileged people and that it was never meant for someone like me regardless of how good I was. These opinions hurt me because I knew that my situation was already harder than most people my age had, but I decided that I was not going to give up.
I set up a new goal of becoming the best at whatever I did and disregard any comments of people that said Hispanic women in engineering never succeed. After completing my associates degree in science, I ended up transferring to UCLA with a 4.0 GPA, Full time scholarships, and three amazing research opportunities. I was able to prove that women like me belong in a place like UCLA.
Just because I come from a different background than many people that attend this school does not mean that I cannot be as great. I think that the best lesson I learned from this experience is that regardless of what stereotypes there are or anything that people might say to bring you down, only YOU have power to decide whether you want these things to affect you or empower you. I chose and continue choosing to be empowered.
I am currently working on my masters degree at the University of Southern California. Still defeating the odds, learning along the way, and ready to face any challenges that I might encounter.
Where does my passion for engineering come from?
My passion for school roots from my parents. My parents came from very poor families in which education was not an option and they had to work to be able to survive. Since they did not have the privilege of studying, they always worked very hard so that me and my siblings could have what they couldn’t.
My thrive developed from my father. I remember when I was little and we had car problems, he would fix them. If there were electric malfunctions around the house, he would fix them. Something wouldn’t work? He had a solution! I would always follow him around to see how he would fix things around the house and that sparked my interest for finding solutions to problems.
I started high school when I came to this country. During my junior year in high school, I got to really get to know one of the math professors who was an engineer that worked at Boeing. He informed me about what engineering really was about and took me to an open house they had at Boeing. At this open house, I saw all the machines and projects that engineers were working on and after this experience I remember thinking to myself “I want to do what these people do.” This was the turning point in my life where I made the decision to pursue engineering as a career.
During my undergraduate years, I got involved in engineering clubs and organizations in which I met people that kept on sparking that passion for engineering. I was able to join the NASA Microcomputer and Robotics internship in which me and a team successfully developed a steering system for a six-wheeled rover using Arduino microcontrollers. This was the first hands on experience I ever had with developing software that would interact with a hardware design that my team and I also came up with. By this time in my educational career, I was already sure that Electrical Engineering was the major that I wanted to pursue.
After being part of this amazing experience, I was able to be part of the University of California Irvine Inspire Program. During this program, I led a team to generate a Natural Ventilation System IoT product using Raspberry Pi. This program helped me develop leadership and further my knowledge in electronics and programming.
Another opportunity that continued to expand my love for engineering was my research at the Autonomous Networks Research Laboratory at the University of Southern California. This research was the one that helped me the most because I was able to see how research is conducted in the engineering field and the type of skills that are needed in a formal laboratory. During this research I was able to analyze and implement a data communications algorithm to develop a graphical user interface using Matlab. I was also able to design a voice controlled system to communicate between devices through the cloud using a Particle Photon microcontroller.
Having been able to really explore my major and develop professional and technical skills in my career, I feel like I have been following the right path when it comes to what I want and how I chose my career. I am very thankful for the amazing people that have mentored me along my educational career. They showed me how amazing engineering is and how important it is to not only find a career but also love what you do.
Future goals
I like to divide my goals in two categories: long-term and short-term. My short-term goals consist on keeping up good grades, volunteering in a laboratory working towards getting published, and attaining my M.S. in Electrical Engineering.
My long-term main goal consists in obtaining a PhD in Electrical Engineering and remain in research.
Thanks so much for learning about my career in engineering and supporting my dream
Sincerely,
Karla Lopez Sanchez