Carlos Rivas of Verbum Dei High School brought his A-game to Aerospace, and we simply loved it! An enthusiastic candidate for the 2017 Dr. Wanda M. Austin STEM Endowment scholarship, this super scholar impressed us and won us over.

To be considered for the scholarship, Carlos and other bright high school contestants submitted an essay describing their interest in pursuing a STEM career, recommendation letters, academic transcripts, and a statement of financial need. After careful consideration of the submissions, Aerospace selected the top two candidates for a final interview with the selection committee.

This win for our future as a nation wouldn’t be complete without some history as to how Carlos got to where he is. At a field trip to the Air and Space exhibits at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, an eight-year-old Carlos set his sights on the stars and emphatically declared he was going to be an aerospace engineer. The rest, as they say, is history.

But living in a low-income, single-parent household in the community of Watts in Los Angeles is not easy. It didn’t matter, though. Carlos discovered his passion for education, and nothing was going to stop him from learning. Carlos continued to study hard — focusing on advanced math and science — and throughout middle and high school even worked on building rocket models. His unrelenting passion for engineering also led him to establish the Engineering Club at Verbum Dei High School, where he served as the club’s president.

Carlos now attends St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, pursuing his physics degree, which will launch him on a trajectory to becoming an aerospace engineer—with us, here at The Aerospace Corporation.