Rutgers Engineering Grad Demonstrates Knack for Achieving Goals
‘Community service was important to me, especially motivating other students who were once told they wouldn’t be able to make it. They shouldn’t think that’s the end. They have to find ways around it if it’s something they’re really passionate about.’– Carolyn Andia
Carolyn Andia’s success has hinged on never letting anyone tell her she couldn’t make it. Initially denied admission to Rutgers School of Engineering, Andia developed an academic plan to continue to pursue a spot in the program.
She’ll graduate from the School of Engineering this month.
When things don’t go Andia’s way, she repeatedly finds a way to attain her goals. It’s a skill she developed long before she started college.
Born in Peru, Andia had been interested in the aerospace field since she boarded a jet there as a child to fly to her new home and life in the United States – 11 years after her family applied for U.S. residence. She was devastated when she was admitted not to the School of Engineering – her math SAT score was below the school’s threshold – but to the School of Arts and Sciences.
“All this time, I thought I would be an engineer, and now it’s not going to happen,” she remembers thinking.
That summer, on campus for a college transition program, Andia sought the advice of Dean Ilene Rosen, adviser to the Society of Hispanic Engineers. “I didn’t want to give up,” she said.
Together, they devised a class schedule that tracked closely with first-year engineering courses. Andia began performing better in calculus than some students with higher SAT scores, and by Memorial Day of her first year, she was accepted to the School of Engineering.
Her determination paid off again in 2012, when she became the first Rutgers engineering student to be part of the Igor Sikorsky Scholarship Program, which provided a coveted scholarship and summer internships at helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. While her first summer assignment was interesting, she discovered a more challenging group that would further sharpen her skills. But that team didn’t offer a student internship.
Andia asked about it, and the team’s manager explained that the group had so many assignments to juggle, she couldn’t figure out how to design an intern project. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Andia told the manager. “When I’m in school, I have to study for exams, do projects, do homework and community service – I’m not focusing on just one thing at a time.”
The manager went on to create an internship and selected Andia to fill it the next summer. “It was an experiment for both of us,” said Andia, who ended up successfully handling a full plate of assignments.
Andia is the younger daughter of a mother who was an industrial engineer and a father who was an economist. The family relocated from Peru to Paterson, where Andia enrolled in a bilingual class in fifth grade.
At first, she was frustrated and discouraged, attending a school where she knew no one and missing the family and friends she’d left behind. But her parents never stopped emphasizing the opportunities their daughters would have in this country. They also instilled a curiosity that prodded her to seek bigger challenges, to show people what she was capable of doing and to prove stereotypes wrong.
“They are the source of my motivation and persistence to go after my dreams,” said Andia. “I am fortunate to be where I am today because of their sacrifice.”
While Andia proved adept at getting what she wanted, she has never lost sight of those who have helped her. Rutgers students visiting her high school motivated her to pursue engineering and on-campus experiences strengthened that resolve. It was fitting that she wanted to help others when she entered Rutgers.
Working with the engineering school’s Society of Hispanic Engineers chapter, Andia formed study groups, tutored other students and created a mentoring program. During her senior year, she served as the chapter’s community service chair, arranging the same kinds of school visits by Rutgers students she’d experienced years earlier.
“Community service was important to me, especially motivating other students who were once told they wouldn’t be able to make it,” Andia says. “They shouldn’t think that’s the end. They have to find ways around it if it’s something they’re really passionate about.”
Andia was also selected as one of the school’s first alumni industry scholars. The program provided her financial support and access to a successful alumnus who helped her negotiate the job search. That advice was valuable when she found herself in the enviable but stressful position of fielding two competitive job offers.
Andia’s older sister, Nancy, graduated from the School of Engineering last year. The sisters share an apartment between campus and Nancy’s job at Johnson & Johnson in Bridgewater, an arrangement that will end soon. Carolyn has accepted an offer from UTC Aerospace Systems near Hartford, and Nancy’s next job assignment in information technology could take her away from New Jersey.
Andia is especially grateful to her parents, who left behind professional careers in Peru and took manufacturing jobs here to support their daughters and provide them with opportunities they wouldn't find in Peru. “It’s our turn to give back to them,” she said. “I don’t want them to work that hard anymore. I want them to enjoy life after all they have done for me.”