Cohort 1
Alberto Ceja
Test Engineer, Humantics
Alberto holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. He works as a test engineer for Humanics. In his work at Humantics, he works with crash dummies. His job is to certify, test, and produce the dummies in Ohio . He is an integral member in terms of testing and certification of new and existing crash test dummies.
Keneil Gordon
Graduate Student, Virginia Tech
Keneil holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Virginia Tech in Civil Engineering. In 2023, he earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. He is currently continuing his education working on a Masters Degree in City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.
Erica He
Operations Industrial Engineer at United States Postal Service
Erica's undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech is in Industrial Systems Engineering. At her current work with the United States Postal Service, she is working on creating new facilities with new sortation machine to improve work efficiency. She is leading 5+ delivery units sorter machine deployment projects by conducting machine operator trainings to craft employees, coordinate with multiple stakeholders to ensure site follows maintenance and safety practices, and coding machine sort plan. She also creates operational space layouts using Autocad for site’s space management, architecture, workroom floor, and evacuation route drawings.
Personal Impact Clark Scholars Program
"I gained lots of support from my clark peers and my clark scholar faculty mentor. In additional to the financial support."
Nefetari Heath
Project Engineer II, Gilbane Building Company
Nefetari graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in Building Construction with a minor in Real Estate. She is currently a project egineer for Gilbane Building Company working on D.C. Public Schools.
Clemence Hildalgo
Industrial Engineer, Newport News Shipyard
Clemence graduated from Virginia Tech with an undergraduate degree in Industrial Systems Engineering. He works as an industrial engineer for the Newport News Shipyard. Currently, he is in a design drawing group where they use Inventor to create drawings to be manufactured and used in the yard by the customers that requested them.
Personal Impact of Clark Scholars Program
"It enabled me to be financially stable after college and I was able to not have the stress of paying my student loans. It enabled me to have good connections with people that enabled me to land my current job position."
Makenzi Moore
Civil Analyst, Kimley-Horn
Makenzi graduated with an undergraduate degree in Construction Engineering and Management in 2021 and graduate with Civil Infrastructure Engineering in 2022 both from Virginia Tech. Her current work includes land development projects for data centers in Northern Virginia.
Ricabelle Pagara
Project Engineer, Gilbane Building Company
Ricabelle holds an undergraduate degree in Construction Engineering Management from Virginia Tech. She works as a project engineer for Gilbane Building Company.
Mia Taylor
Research Engineer, Graf Research
Mia graduated from Virginia Tech with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. She currently works as a research engineer for Graf Research. Graf Research is a small research contractor where she specializes in applied machine learning research to understand hardware and related topics.
Personal Impact of Clark Scholars Program
"The Clark Scholarship provided me support throughout my undergraduate careers. I had Dr. Sheila Carter-Tod and my peers to talk to about anything. My parents didn’t go to college, so I couldn’t ask them many questions I had about how to handle college-specific things. With the scholarship, I had strong support and could focus on learning adulthood with practically no financial pressure."
Julio Villarroel
Sales & Trading Analyst, Citigroup
Julio holds an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech in Checmical Engineering. Currently, He is a Sales and Trade Analyst for Citigroup working in the High Yield trading desk.
Ezekiel Volk
Field Engineer, Hensel Phelps
Ezekiel grauted from Virginia Tech with a double major in Building Construction and Real Estate. He currently works on the WMATA Bladensburg Bus Garage Replacement project in Northeast Washington DC.
Personal Impact of Clark Scholars Program
"It was an amazing experience being a Clark Scholar in my time at Virginia Tech. The Clark Scholars program allowed me to have access to countless resources such as special advisors, training, service abroad projects; not to mention how having full-tuition +room and board made college life much better and stress free experience."