Milena Gonzales Vasquez - Undergraduate in Chemical Engineering, Class of 2012

I did not have the opportunity to visit Stanford before making my decision, but if I had, I would have chosen it with even more certainty. Thinking about Stanford—the beautiful campus, academic quality in majors across the board, the reputation of the university and its alumni, Northern California weather—the pro-list grew rapidly. Digging a little more into Stanford Engineering, the main research areas caught my eye, especially environment and energy.

I did not have the opportunity to visit Stanford before making my decision, but if I had, I would have chosen it with even more certainty. Thinking about Stanford--the beautiful campus, academic quality in majors across the board, the reputation of the university and its alumni, Northern California weather--the pro-list grew rapidly. Digging a little more into Stanford Engineering, the main research areas caught my eye, especially environment and energy. I was also very fortunate to attend the Stanford Summer Engineering Academy (SSEA) before starting freshman year, further convincing me of my decision to study here. During SSEA I was able to see what Stanford was all about, meet students and faculty from different engineering departments, and get familiar with Stanford's resources. Whether through Admit Weekend, a summer program, or on your own, I would definitely recommend visiting the university to understand what is so great about Stanford that cannot be described in a pro/con list.

What I Work On

I am a recently declared chemical engineer, and I am planning on going abroad to Paris next spring. Also, this will be my second year as director of fundraising for Engineers for a Sustainable World-Stanford (ESW), a national, non-profit organization. Last year I was also a Project Leader for our ecological sanitation project in Oaxaca, Mexico. Throughout the year we organize several events and workshops on campus, and take on a couple of projects in developing countries, where we apply engineering ingenuity to promote sustainability and fight poverty. During the summer I began working in Professor Tom Jaramillos lab in chemical engineering. My project consists of synthesizing films for photo-electrochemical cells--they use sunlight to produce a chemical fuel-- in an effort to save the world, as every other researcher will say (or at least to prevent the energy crisis). Being able to dive into research during the summer has been extremely rewarding, not only in the amount of things I have learned and skills I have gained within my research area, but also as a head-start to continue working on this project during the academic year.