Pablo Lopez P.E. and the current Manhattan College Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
ANNA SEGOTA/THE QUADRANGLE
By Anna Segota, Staff Writer and Leyla Mercado, Staff Writer
Manhattan College’s Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) hosted geo-structural engineer Pablo Lopez, P.E., last week as he spoke to students about working in the industry and his experiences.
SHPE is an organization for Hispanic students and professionals alike in the engineering field to collaborate and celebrate their identity. SHPE also works to create opportunities for Hispanic engineers in a field where their voices haven’t always been heard.
MC’s chapter of SHPE hosts several trips and events each year, including a trip to Google’s offices in Manhattan and attending the yearly organization-wide SHPE conference in Utah.
“The whole aspect of having a sense of community was a big thing for me, so that’s why I chose to join especially, considering that I am a first-generation college student,” Ashlie Roque, president of MC’s chapter of SHPE, said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, even though I had other family members that had gone to college, they didn’t do anything in STEM. So it was just a big thing for me to have that kind of connection to other STEM majors who might be experiencing the same thing.”
SHPE collaborated with the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI), an association dedicated to finding common ground with professionals in the deep foundations industry, which includes the field of geo-structural engineering. The DFI has a chapter at Manhattan College and was interested in having Lopez speak to students using his expertise.
Lopez is a geo-structural engineer who graduated from Manhattan College in 1988. He was a member of SHPE during his time at the college and continues to be involved with SHPE both as a whole and with the MC chapter. Lopez helped work on the New World Trade Center in the wake of 9/11, which many students were interested in during the discussion.
Students asked Lopez about different topics concerning the Hispanic identity and working in engineering. Many students were also curious about Lopez’s background in engineering in relation to construction, and how his time at MC helped him later in life.
“The event was super fun and it was great to talk to someone that genuinely cared about our questions,” Samantha Perricelli, president of the MC chapter of DFI, wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “Pablo was very energetic and enthusiastically answered all questions even if they were about our personal career choices, he even gave us advice on how to make choices about the future and our career paths.”
Joseph Caiazzo, treasurer of SHPE, felt similarly about the advice given at the event, mentioning it is a learning aspect of engineering that is not taught in a class.
“He gave me really good advice about being a young engineer, and how to resolve conflict and other skills you might not learn in school,” Caiazzo said. “Pablo definitely gave us a lot of pointers. He also talked to us about how his career progressed through time and things he did. A lot of people asked him really insightful questions, and he definitely gave very good answers.”
Lopez spoke about what graduates should expect in the workplace, and how they might go about navigating post-grad and finding employment, as well as networking with other alumni.
Many students found this extremely helpful especially since Lopez is a Jasper and offered much more personalized advice.
“It was a privilege and a pleasure to help a fellow Jasper and SHPE member grow professionally,” Lopez wrote in his LinkedIn profile about helping students in SHPE.
SHPE plans to continue to host events similar to this one throughout the year and continue to expand its program and network for students.
Students emphasized the vital effect of having connections with those who have faced experiences similar to their own. Lopez’s words and willingness to listen granted students the opportunity to relate, and see themselves in a field where they might not always be seen.
As SHPE and DFI continue to host events such as this one, the groups aim to have a conversation relating to inclusivity. The panel demonstrated the need for the MC student body to have a space where minority students, such as the Hispanic community, are heard.