Felix Balderas 
EDINBURG – Two civil engineering majors are making career plans after placing first at the National Geowall competition in Charlotte, North Carolina in March.
Ashley Alanis and Miguel Garcia were two of nine team members that constructed a winning bridge design at the national competition against 12 universities. Both are not wasting time navigating their path into the professional engineering world.
Alanis explains she is interning with Terracon and expects to continue with the company in the near future and Garcia is currently working with an engineering company in Austin.
“About the team members… And every one that donated to the cause and believed in us… we are just really grateful for everyone who believed in us and contributed to this win and to the team members,” said Alanis. “Everybody was very on board with this, we all had a vision. We did the best that we could, it was literally the dream team. Everyone is doing so well now.”
Alanis iterates that every team member now has opportunities because of their collective success in this competition. Garcia recognizes how big of an achievement this win is and believes that UTRGV has the potential to go even further.
“Being from a small university… it does feel overwhelming to be out there competing against those teams,” shared Garcia. “I feel that here at UTRGV, we have the knowledge and the consistency and fortitude to get things done and we want to build a better community not only for here in the RGV but everywhere we go.”
