When Jose Umana joined ODU’s chapter of La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., he was the only member on campus.
“I was a fraternity of one,他说 with a laugh.
仍然, the feeling of 社区 he got from belonging to the wider organization made him feel at home.
“So, for the past few years I’ve been trying to grow our chapter,他说. “My goal was to leave it in a position where it can flourish at ODU.”
By the time he graduates this spring with a degree in computer engineering, Umana will have accomplished that goal, 在ODU有五名成员.
“Jose has provided a thread of consistency for his chapter and the 社区 in the past few years,珍·科恩说, assistant director of student engagement and traditions at ODU. “作为学生领袖, he has used his connections and personality to help amplify the reach of both the organization and the Multicultural Greek Council 社区.”
It’s not the first time Umana has had to set out on his own. 原产马纳萨斯, he was the first in his family to leave home when he came to the University in 2019. His parents are from El Salvador and Honduras, and he said their work ethic pushed him to go to college and make a better life for himself.
“I would see my mom and dad wake up really early in the morning for work, 即使他们生病了,乌玛娜说。. “They had to do it to put food on the table and to give us a chance at better opportunities. 直到今天, they continue to amaze me with the work ethic they display, and it has undoubtedly shaped me into the individual I am today.”
当他年轻的时候, he also spent many summers visiting family back in El Salvador and Honduras, giving him a bigger picture of the opportunities he had in front of him.
“I’m so glad my parents gave me that experience because it changed my whole mindset. 这让我更加努力工作, because once I was over there, I realized the things I was fortunate to have in the United States and the sacrifices my parents had to make,他说.
He also credits one of his high school friends and one of his teachers for pushing him to pursue higher education.
“It’s all about one person believing in you, 从那里开始, your confidence grows to chase your dream,乌玛娜说。.
From an early age, he was always interested in taking stuff apart and seeing how it worked. Thankfully, his high school offered engineering courses outside the regular curriculum.
“I was able to really find my niche in engineering,他说.
At ODU, internships helped him narrow his path. 他在SimIS公司工作., an information technology company started by ODU alum Johnny Garcia, as well as with Init, a transportation company in Chesapeake.
“The internships I had were tailored for more typical engineering roles, and I wasn’t completely satisfied with that,他说. “I went back to the drawing board and really thought about what made me pursue computer engineering, and that was the interaction between software and hardware.”
That led him to want to be an embedded-software engineer, where he would be doing low-level programming that requires knowledge of how hardware works.
With help from ODU advisors, he made it his mission his senior year to tailor his resume to the position, and when he graduates this spring, he will go straight into a job as an embedded-software engineer for Morningstar Corp. in Maryland working on solar charge controllers.
“Looking back, I’m glad everything went the way it did, and I wouldn’t change anything,他说.
There is another benefit to his next chapter – he’ll be close to family, so he won’t be doing it alone.