Alessandro (27) came into the engineering program ready to focus on 3D printing, and found academic rigor, ministry opportunities, and a higher calling.
A fourth-year engineering major with a concentration in electrical engineering, Alessandro always knew that he wanted to stay local when he went off to college. Why? San Diego is just that magical of a place.
“I did not want to leave San Diego,” Alessandro said. “I just can’t imagine living anywhere but San Diego, because the weather is amazing. The Padres are here — it’s indescribable. You experience it for your whole life, and then you don’t want to leave. So, I applied to every college in San Diego.”
“I just can’t imagine living anywhere but San Diego, because the weather is amazing. The Padres are here — it’s indescribable. You experience it for your whole life, and then you don’t want to leave. So, I applied to every college in San Diego.”
Alessandro originally wanted to play baseball in college — which made PLNU an attractive choice, with “America’s Most Scenic Ballpark” — but ended up deciding to focus on his studies.
“What I expected college to be like was not how it has ended up whatsoever,” he said. He always knew he would end up in an engineering field, with his first love of 3D printing driving the bus.
“I am infatuated with 3D printers,” Alessandro explained. “It’s what I got introduced to in high school, and it’s kind of my thing. I’m the president of the 3D printing club on campus and I work for the department by repairing and creating curriculums for the printers. I use it for all my projects — I live and breathe printing.
“So, when I came to Point Loma, I expected engineering to be about 3D printing. I had one idea of what it was going to be like, and then I started taking these classes that had nothing to do with 3D printing, and sometimes it felt like it didn’t have to do anything with engineering at all. It made me question, ‘is this what I want to, is this what I want to continue doing?’”
However, Alessandro stuck with his coursework and came to understand how to navigate general education courses, certain professors’ expectations, and accumulating knowledge that helped support his degree even if it wasn’t in an engineering-related class. The major-focused classes themselves pushed him in ways he didn’t anticipate.
“I would not put anyone else through the engineering curriculum,” Alessandro said ruefully. “It is very challenging, and a lot of the people that you came in with either transfer out, switch majors, or drop out. I sat next to this one guy at my first-ever calculus class, not even an engineering class, and after the lecture, he looked at me and said, ‘I’m not doing this,’ and switched to undeclared on the spot. So that constantly happens around you for like the first two years. Everyone is struggling with not having any idea or clue how to handle it. It pushes a lot of people.”
Because of the difficulty and rigorous coursework, Alessandro found that his degree path made him a better student and engineer, pushing him to continue to grow and refine his understanding of the world. He credits a lot of his growth to engineering professor Dr. José Manjarrés.
“He has been the cornerstone of my journey through engineering,” Alessandro said, “because he doesn’t hold back. It’s hard concepts, and he’s also having to adapt and figure things out because the engineering degree and curriculum at the moment is constantly evolving with the accreditation.
“There has been change after change after change, and with that, my plans kept evolving into things I didn’t anticipate. I kept rolling with the punches, and reflecting back on that now, in preparation for this interview, compared to where I was before, I’m different.”
“He’s doing his best, and I can genuinely see that. I like that desire to learn, coupled with someone who actually wants to teach, and then combined again with the small class sizes. We talk in Spanish, because he’s from Colombia, and so there’s that connection outside of the classroom as well — just talking about career, grad school, and relationships.”
Alessandro knows he’s changed in just three years of college, especially because his idea of what it means to be an engineer has shifted.
“There has been change after change after change, and with that, my plans kept evolving into things I didn’t anticipate,” he explained. “I kept rolling with the punches, and reflecting back on that now, in preparation for this interview, compared to where I was before, I’m different.”
He’s brought the critical thinking skills and sense of responsibility he’s learned in his classes to his ministry work, especially on a Loveworks trip to El Salvador.
“The summer after freshman year I was still in a rocky place of whether I still wanted to study engineering. We were in El Salvador, and we were painting this church, and they had a bent light post because someone had crashed into it. We were trying to push it back into shape, and I said that I had learned about forces and how to best apply them in class. I said, let’s grab a rope, tie it to the top, and pull on it instead of trying to push. And we straightened it out! Everyone was like, ‘Engineer Alex, Engineer Alex,’ and that’s when I knew I wanted to help people, and do good with this degree. I didn’t just want to make money and build cool stuff, I also wanted to help others.”
Alessandro noted that in both ministry and engineering, there is a lot of responsibility to carry that comes with the leadership aspect of those roles.
“As I’m going into my senior year, there are a lot of people below me, whereas before there were a lot of people above me that I looked up to,” he explained. “Now people are looking up to me. When that shift happened, I don’t know, but with that comes a lot of responsibility.”
Alessandro started an internship at Cyth, an engineering firm that works with automated systems, both in hardware and software. During his internship, he will get an up-close look at what it’s like to work as an engineer, supporting the team, which is made up of quite a few alumni.
“I’m looking forward to connecting with a lot of Point Loma alums,” Alessandro said. “The CEO of this company is on the engineering advising board of Point Loma, so that’s resulted in a lot of engineering alums working as engineers here. I’m excited to get to talk with them and understand what life is like after you graduate.”
“I’m excited to apply all I’ve been sitting on — three years’ worth of concepts — and do something that is not just for a grade. [I want] to show that I can do this, and I can apply myself. I can work with people, I can work in a team, and I can [take advantage of] an opportunity to do something worthwhile.”
