Since stay-at-home guidelines were announced, school online has become a fixture across the country. In March, Andres Restrepo, a Morgan State University civil engineering major, moved back home to a suburb in Washington D.C. Since then, he’s taken some pretty tough exams online. Recently, he sat down (remotely) with CCG Media host Ray Kennedy to talk about internships, sports, culture, and the future beyond graduation in May 2021.
“It takes discipline,” Andres said. Out of his dorm room, he has a wake-up schedule and a place within his home to focus on studies while his family go about their daily lives. The all-round athlete is also working out more, he said.
As a civil engineering student, Andres is focused on infrastructure: roads, bridges, buildings, sewer pipes, water pipes, electrical systems, railroads.
“Things that people use every day but we don’t really think much about,” he added.
Andres said he knew he wanted to be an engineer early on. He was inspired by Lego sets, taking things apart, and putting them together.
“When it came to choosing a major, I chose civil engineering because I want to help build things and improve the lives of others,” he said. Take a listen.
One of his role models is a high-ranking officer in the United States military. “He’s always so personable, friendly,” Andres said.
Recently, Andres completed an internship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Europe.
“It’s civil engineering at the federal level,” Andres explained. “I attained that internship, thankfully, through Morgan State University, with the AMIE program,” he said.
Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering (AMIE) is a non-profit organization that represents a coalition of industry and government agencies, and the ABET-accredited Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Schools of Engineering, who encourage minority students to pursue engineering and facilitates the recruitment of minority students (coops, interns, graduates, etc.) at member organizations.
Click here to listen to Andres talk about his dream internship on a U.S. Army base in Germany. And what happened when the upcoming civil engineer missed his step on some cobblestones in eastern Europe.
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