My name is Steven Magana; I'm attending Cal State LA and working on getting a bachelor's in mechanical engineering. I chose this major because I wanted to understand how machines work and be able to work with my hands when it comes to building and taking apart machinery. I hope that when I graduate, I can find a job that can help support my family just as they have been supporting me.
When working on projects or doing homework, I try to solve the problem from different angles and keep working until I have a solution. An example of this is when I took my first engineering class in college and was tasked to work with a team to build a boat out of PVC pipes and motors. We each added our own opinions on how the ship would look and took into account the right design that would be suitable for traveling underwater. It was a fun project in my first year, and I enjoyed my time there.
I'm currently in the Cal State LA Baja Club, which specializes in designing, building, and racing off-road carts in competitions. Right now, I'm learning about the different parts that the coach has so that when I help out with the construction, I can be experienced in the subject.
In my spare time, I enjoy learning how to play music on my guitar or trumpet; as I mentioned before, I enjoy building with my hands, so I often spend time building figures of robots made out of plastic. I like being able to add details to the figures instead of just building them and leaving them as is.