Class of 2025 BYU engineering graduates reflect on how BYU has shaped them

Kenny Quintana
Civil Engineering

• Favorite memory: Going out dancing at night with friends on a study abroad to Costa Rica after a long day of hard work.
• Extracurricular experiences: Sustainable Solutions club, Steel Bridge club, alternate on the concrete canoe team. Having a spread of involvement helped him “find interesting ways to continue engineering outside of class.”
• Something he’ll miss: How busy he was with school and how that let him connect with students, studying in the computer lab til midnight, doing hard things with friends and people around him, a support system he was able to create through his major.
• What’s next: Going straight into a masters program at BYU where he will continue research on effects of dams on down-stream currents, wants to start a Ph.D. afterwards.
• Words of wisdom: Go to TA’s, make friends in classes, study with people. “Your classes just get ten times better when you're going and you're seeing your friends rather than you’re going and you're getting homework and it just becomes work.”

Lilly Williams
Chemical Engineering

• Best part of chemical engineering: The diversity of fields that chemical engineers can go into and apply their skills.
• Favorite memory: Performing with the Rhythm and Soul Collective in the Marriott Center with the crowd, makeup, and lights. Being a part of leadership in the dance group and being able to teach dancing, seeing growth in the dancers as they are well received by audiences.
• Influential person: Her best friend that she met at NSO freshman year and has since shaped her life, also a chemical engineering major, working for the same company in different places in the U.S.
• What’s next: Working for Valero as a process engineer at their refinery in Memphis, TN starting in June.
• Words of Wisdom: Go to office hours to make your life easier and learn better, and don’t isolate yourself. Build good relationships with professors, participate in extracurriculars, and do things outside of academics. “I feel like I started enjoying my time more at BYU when I started dancing.”

Tristan Mott
Computer Engineering

• Favorite memory: Putting together a rocket as a freshman for the launch competition with the BYU Rocketry and going to BYU vs. Utah games.
• Greatest triumph: Being accepted into research early in college and publishing his own patented sports analytics work after solving a problem that could save a sports team millions of dollars.
• Influential person: Dr. Karl Warnick, a professor that gave him an unexpected research opportunity, an advocate for learning and an open mind.
• What’s next: Starting a masters and Ph.D. in computer science at BYU where he will continue research, studying machine learning and game theory.
• Words of wisdom: Read and learn as much as you can, from your classes and from scholarly research papers. Be intentional and take your opportunity to learn in college seriously.

Irene Ramos Robles
Mechanical Engineering

• Something she’ll miss: Access to labs, resources, the research department, speakers, conferences, and opportunities to experience every area of mechanical engineering that BYU has to offer.
• Influential person: Dr. Bowden, a professor that follows BYU motto by serving and making her always feel welcome in his classes, research, and projects, encouraging her to achieve her goals and believing in her.
• Favorite memory: Finding a community as a presidency member in the BYU chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SPHE), helping international students not feel alone and instead feel seen.
• Greatest triumph: Coming to college as an international student, not knowing English at all, and being able to give an engineering presentation in English.
• Words of wisdom: Speak up, stand up, and smile. Don’t be shy or compare yourself to others. “You are not a success because you are getting your goals achieved. You are a success because you are sharing. You’re raising other people up.”

Benji Barnhurst
Technology and Engineering (Teaching)

• Best part of TES: The tight-knit community that comes with a small major, working hard at the Snell building with the wonderful friends he’s made, being able to help students find their strong-suit outside of traditional academics after high school, and the wide variety of shops available.
• Influential people: Dr. Wright, Dr. Shumley, and Dr. Bartholomew, the three professors in TES. Each was influential to him in different ways that he needed at different times.
• Greatest triumph: Being an almost 40-year-old college student with a wife and kids, deciding to change his career path to something more fulfilling for him, taking the leap of faith and finishing his undergraduate with a lot of hard work and faith. “I’ll tell you what, God is good.”
• What’s next: Finishing his degree early to work at a new middle school that is opening up, being a positive influence on the future generation and supporting them with their next steps. “I’m old enough to realize that I probably won't change the world, but I could change a couple kid’s lives.”
• Words of advice: Push yourself, but don’t overstress yourself. “I think that there's some classes that you should focus more on and put your energy into and others … Sometimes it is what's the minimum I have to do this week to get through this week.”

Sam Everitt
Technology and Engineering (Teaching)

• Favorite memory: Going to UACD every year, a CTE teacher conference, with her major that feels like a family, including hikes with professors and ice cream stops. “If we’re going out as a major, we’re getting ice cream.”
• Influential person: Benji, a good friend that always looks out for her, reminds her of her dad who had a similar life experience.
• Greatest triumph: Adjusting to being a BYU student two days after coming home from her mission and overcoming heavy trials to strengthen her testimony. She said BYU helped keep her faith strong.
• Next steps: Teaching CTE classes covering college career awareness and manufacturing in Bluffdale.
• Words of wisdom: “Rely on the knowledge that you learn in your religion classes and the knowledge that you learned in your primary classes because that's really what’s going to get you farther in life than any education BYU can offer you.” Also, try studying abroad if you can.

Noa Leituala
Mechanical Engineering

• Favorite memory: Pulling an all nighter for a robotics class, having fun with and rubbing shoulders with people who were in the same part of life as him, and the feeling he had when he got accepted into the program with his second application after an initial rejection.
• Greatest triumph: Graduating after working full time to put himself through school, making the commitment to stick it out through a tough program and making good lifelong friends along the way. “I give a shoutout to any students who are working while going to school. It’s tough, but if you can do it, it’s worth it.”
• Influential person: Dr. Crockett, one of many faculty who supported students and had high expectations, pushing them to be better and supported them as they did. “She really went above and beyond for us students, even though she has her own research, her own classes.”
• What’s next: Attending law school at BYU in Fall 2025.
• Words of wisdom: Look around you, find your people, and find your motivation. “That ‘why’ for me, that motivation has really pushed me through the late nights, the long essays, the big tests. That made the difference. I think if people can really nail down their motivation early, it helps when the going gets tough.”

Echo Peterson
Manufacturing Engineering

• Best part of manufacturing engineering: Getting to see the end product of engineering processes, seeing the impact and roll out of her work, being the link between design and the final product.
• Favorite memory: A before-class chili cook-off planned by her cohort, bonding with her friends and classmates from junior year, the reminder that she was in the right place. Having a support system full of people that are inspirations and motivations that she can be successful too.
• Greatest triumph: Seeing tangible growth in computer aided manufacturing after taking similar subject matter a few semesters apart, struggling with a subject earlier in her education and is now a TA for that subject, proving that she is capable of improvement.
• Next steps: Working as a manufacturing engineer for Caterpillar in Pontiac, IL making fuel injectors.
• Words of wisdom: “You've just got this. So, just have the confidence that you deserve because you earned it.”

Kenneth Rooks
Civil Engineering

• Best part of civil engineering: That he can focus a bit more on what he’s interested in and tie in the environmental aspect with engineering, problem solving in ways that help the community and environment. “It's a lot easier to see looking back, now that I'm finishing up, that this is what I needed to do.”
• Extracurricular experiences: Proud to be graduating having been a student athlete with the BYU Track and Field team, competing in world championships, winning a couple of national championships, and winning a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics.
• Greatest triumph: Everything he does to strengthen his relationship with Jesus Christ, fill himself with light, and be a better light to others.
• Next steps: Focusing on running professionally to explore doors that have been opened to him for the next four to five years through the next Olympics, would like to go back to school and get a masters in civil engineering.
• Words of wisdom: Learn as much as you can about what different career paths are available in engineering. Prioritize relationships. “Ultimately, if you put the work in, you're going to get your degree, and you're going to learn the skills that you need to learn. But, the relationships with people are going to be more meaningful moving into the future.”

Michelle Arias
Mechanical Engineering

• Best part of mechanical engineering: Loves being hands-on and building things, becoming cross-functional as an engineer.
• Extracurriculars: Research in vibrational sciences and then carbon nanotubes, publishing multiple papers since early on in her undergraduate, attending multiple conferences, interning at GE HealthCare, working on her capstone with the Rocketry team, being president of SHPE, starting a lifelong advocacy for women and minority groups in STEM, being able to bring a large group of students from SHPE to a convention by crowdfunding which was difficult but rewarding and fun.
• Something she’ll miss: The freedom of resources and tools, opportunities to have fun, hands-on “play” in labs, being able to work with amazing BYU students in creativity and projects. “I wouldn’t have been this achieved, this accomplished, if I didn't go to BYU, with so much help as well as you know the spirituality of the Holy Spirit helping us.”
• Next steps: Will continue working with Octavian Solutions as a process engineer, transitioning into working full time after on non-invasive glucose monitors, helping with the beginning phases of a growing company.
• Words of wisdom: You can do a lot that you want to, even from a young age. “You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do… Observe, learn and befriend people that are much more motivated than you so that you can build yourself up. You become the people you're with.”

Jerson Jaramillo Garcia
Civil Engineering

• Favorite memory: Being an older college student from Peru in a general education philosophy class, having an epiphany about the difference between existing and being real, the realization that he is capable of achieving whatever he puts his mind to, motivation to try new things. “I want to be awake, accomplish things, because I feel like time is so limited, and I want to do as much as I can.”
• Greatest triumph: Graduating at almost 29 years old after starting college late, coming from Peru, taking three years to learn English and get into BYU. Jerson said that if he hadn’t decided to serve a mission and gotten called to Ecuador, he wouldn’t have been where he is today. “My mission changed the rest of my life… I feel like God had a plan for me.”
• Influential person: Dr. Ames, a professor that found him when he was at a place of confusion in his personal and educational life, started research with him and gave a lot of tools to explore and learn, got him into a new industry.
• Next steps: Continue education at BYU in a master's program in water resources, research with Dr. Ames trying to develop a phone app where one can check the flow levels of rivers in the United States, keep learning as much as he can.
• Words of wisdom: Don’t be afraid of learning, no matter how hard or complicated it looks. Keep learning and taking advantage of opportunities and the time you have so that you have no regrets. “The same way we are so blessed right now, there is so many people that need of those blessings as well, and we need to take responsibility for that.”

Kate Williams
Manufacturing Engineering

• Extracurricular experiences: Participating in the Research Mentorship program as a freshman with Dr. Miles, being the secretary for the Women in Manufacturing Club for three years and bonding with the community in her major, studying abroad in Singapore for global product design, learning and developing herself through the Leadership Mentorship Program.
• Influential person: Dr. McKell, a professor that was a constant support and mentor in the background of her undergraduate, fun and encouraging, pushed his students. Kate said her favorite memory is when she was trying to hammer down a piece into a vice in three tries in his class. She has been a TA for him for the past two years.
• Greatest triumph: Having the opportunity to work with two internships at a time when it is hard to get jobs, feeling confident in her baseline learning because of the hands-on work she has done.
• Next steps: Working with Applied Materials in Austin, TX, will start an entry level rotational program through different manufacturing positions before being placed on one of their teams after one year.
• Words of wisdom: In the transition from high school to college, don’t be overly critical of yourself. “Don’t sweat the small stuff… Everything's not that big a deal. There are some things that require more, and there's some things that it's okay. It's okay if it slips by.”

Collin Lambert
Computer Engineering

• Best part of computer engineering: Doing the cool stuff that makes machines function with a lot of creativity, solving it in his own unique way. “You get to make the circuits that make the world work.”
• Influential person: Dr. Chung, a professor that gave Collin a chance to design chips like he’d wanted to do for a long time, met Collin at an interview for an internship where he invited him to join him in his research. Collin said that it fell into place perfectly and that Dr. Chung “has really steered the course of my undergraduate to where I’m finally like I really like what I’m doing.”
• Greatest triumph: Balancing a social life with school and research and excelling in each area, keeping a high GPA, publishing research with his name on it, and making friends in his major and through his junior core when he hadn’t easily made friends before. Collin said that he is satisfied that he knows who he is now.
• Next steps: Continuing his research with Dr. Chung in grad school at BYU, looking forward to an industry career in computer engineering.
• Words of wisdom: “Don't limit yourself by what your perception is of yourself. Just say, I want to do this, I'm going to make it happen… If you want to do something, go for it, because this is your only chance to do it at this stage in life.”

Madi Cowan
Mechanical Engineering

• Something she’ll miss: The atmosphere of BYU where she’s surrounded by people who share her same values and experiences, spending hours with friends.
• Most influential person: Dr. Blotter, her mentor in the Research Mentorship program in the vibrations and acoustics lab, trusted her with hard and complicated processes, made her feel confident in what she could do and find belonging in engineering.
• Favorite memory: Meeting her husband at BYU, who is also from Alabama, after not enjoying the dating scene before, pulling her only all-nighter to finish a robot for her Mechatronics class and walking it around the Engineering Building after ordering pizza at 2 a.m. with her team.
• Next steps: Continuing with her Science Math And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship with the Department of Defense, will be employed full time after with the Missile Defense Agency in the systems test and performance analysis group.
• Words of wisdom: Give new things a try and have faith in yourself, even if you have no experience. “Even if you think you're failing, you're not. Everyone fails in engineering… As long as you give it a shot and give it your best effort, things will work out. If you have faith in yourself then it’ll all workout in the end.”