Sometimes it seems like there’s just not enough hours in the week, but this SBVC student has made the time to succeed both inside and outside of the classroom.
Alex Diaz is forging a future career in welding and mechanical engineering at San Bernardino Valley College, and has fully immersed himself not only academically, but also in extracurricular activities.
He is a member of the SBVC’s award-winning Welding Club, which participated in the ESAB’s WeldItForward competition in 2018. The club first entered with their submission into the competition’s essay contest, discussing their efforts to promote this highly demanded career, and paying homage to Dan Comisky, an SBVC welding advisor who passed away in earlier in the year.
They advanced to Phase Two of the competition, where they received a welding and cutting equipment package valued at more than $6,000. These new and updated supplies were then to be used to build a project to submit for the final competition. The team constructed and erected a large megaphone that matched the campus’ theme of “Shout Your Dreams”.
SBVC placed sixth out of 250 in the competition, and the incredible structured has been permanently placed in the Physical Sciences lawn of campus, where students are encouraged daily to shout their dreams. After the dozens of hours of work, Alex was acknowledge with his own name on the side of the statue.
On top of his volunteer club efforts, Alex dedicates nearly 50 hours a week towards his academic studies. He is pursuing his degree in welding, but also finds immense enjoyment from auditing several extra classes for the sake of expanding his knowledge and skills. Furthermore, he is committed to working 20 hours a week at his part-time job .
“You can’t grow without having to go through challenge,” he said. “There were days that I wanted to give up from just pure exhaustion, but it was the encouragement of other students and members kept me pushing forward. I want to be a leader.”
Alex plans on graduating from SBVC in the Spring of 2020, where he then plans on attending Cal Poly Pomona and opening his own business.
