Guadalupe Ramirez, MSE

May 10, 2009

Immigrant reaches out to help others<separator></separator>Only eight years ago, the odds seemed against Guadalupe Ramirez being an university graduate in 2009 – particularly one with sufficient achievements to pursue a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. Ramirez spoke only Spanish when she came to Somerton, Ariz., from her native Mexico in 2001. The language barrier dropped her a year behind during high school.<separator></separator>But eventually, she earned a college scholarship and graduated with distinction from Arizona Western community college in 2004.<separator></separator>Then came enrollment in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, where she excelled not only in her studies but also outside the classroom.<separator></separator>She joined ASU’s chapter of Women in Science and Engineering and became vice president of its robotics team, which won a regional event and competed in international robotics events.<separator></separator>“I was grateful to have found such a club at ASU where I could apply things I learned in class to real-life situations,” she says.<separator></separator>Now a U.S. citizen, Ramirez also has made time to help others discover the opportunities she found at ASU.<separator></separator>She works as a mentoring program coordinator at the Motivated Engineering Transfer Students Center, which works to recruit and retain engineering students – especially women and others from groups underrepresented in the engineering profession.<separator></separator>“It helps community college transfer students, like myself, to have a smooth transition to ASU,” she says.<separator></separator>In 2008, Ramirez was a presenter for the ASU Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program, an outreach program to raise education and career aspirations among Hispanic women.<separator></separator>Beyond her own education, she says the chance to help others overcome obstacles and go to college “made being at ASU one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”