Julia Soalheiro graduated from the Penn State College of Engineering in the spring of 2020 with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering. She currently is working with GE Aviation as a Materials Application Engineer working on Legacy military jet engines.

Julia always knew Penn State was her dream school. Her older sister attended Penn State’s College of Engineering and Julia learned a lot about it through her. Julia was drawn to the College of Engineering not only because of how highly ranked it is, but also because of their diversity and inclusion efforts.

At first, Julia did not know exactly what program she wanted to focus on. During her first-year seminar class, she had to complete a project that included researching different majors in the College of Engineering and present them. Through this she found out about the Materials Science and Engineering major and instantly knew that’s what she wanted to do. Her favorite part of her major was that her degree “plays a role in every invention and manufacturing imaginable”.

Once she decided what she wanted to focus on, she received strong support from her academic college. She found that the college was “supportive with different career paths and loved how many options there were to choose from when specializing in materials”. On top of that, she was very grateful for her academic advisor. Her advisor helped her with anything she needed and would create events for students to help make the college feel like home.

Besides academics, Julia was very involved outside of the classroom. She was involved in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and even was elected President her senior year. She also took part in the Multicultural Engineering Program Orientation. In this program she started out as a mentee and eventually became a co-coordinator to help plan the event. This was one of her favorite parts of Penn State. She enjoyed being able to create various little communities to make the large campus feel smaller and more like home. Julia offers the advice to prospective and current students to get involved in areas you are truly interested in because you will meet some of your best friends at school, and to cherish them!

To future or current students, she recommends making the most of all the opportunities available to you. This includes networking with your professors (she wishes she had done this with more professors when she attended Penn State). She described this by saying, “The professors I still have connections with are at the top of their fields and have helped guide me to my dream career”.

Julia dreamed of attending Penn State and was able to make the most of that dream. Penn State may be a large school, but is known for its high-quality academics and vibrant student life. These were areas that Julia was glad to be a part of during her time at Penn State and is excited to carry them with her throughout her professional career.