"WHAT SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) MEANS TO ME" by Larry D. Madrid, P.E.
In February, 1998, I attended the national career and technical conference of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) in Orlando, Florida. This was the fourth such conference that I have been to, having previously attended in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Denver. My anticipation and excitement level was extremely high as I approached the event. First of all, I was presenting a paper on starting and running a consulting engineering business, and I was excited about being able to participate on a technical level. Secondly, there was excitement because in a sense, this was the culmination of a personal dream. I, along with Marco Franco (City of Orlando Engineer) and a few others, had started the professional chapter of SHPE in Orlando, and being the host chapter for this event was the culmination of our dreams and hard work.
I was not disappointed at the event. There were over 3000 in attendance, and jobs were extended to several hundred students over the three day period. The career fair was extremely successful, the engineering team competitions were fierce, and the technical presentations and tours were well attended. It was an excellent experience for everyone, and was highlighted by Daniel Goldin, Chief NASA Administrator and keynote speaker.
The annual conference is an excellent example of what SHPE is, and what SHPE does. This organization means a lot to me and I want to tell you why.
A SENSE OF BELONGING
In high school, none of the other kids that I knew with good grades were hispanic. In college, none of the other students that I knew majoring in Civil Engineering were hispanic, until I met some Venezuelans while I was obtaining my Masters degree. As a child, I had no role models who were hispanic engineers. My Dad was a barber, not a scientist or an engineer. There were no other family members who were engineers (aunts, uncles, cousins). Nor were any of my dad's friends engineers. I had no role models.
So when I was finally invited to an awards banquet for hispanic engineers, I was intrigued, excited, and apprehensive. I didn't know what to expect. What I found out was that there were other people like me. People with an hispanic heritage, with aspirations of a professional career based on mathematics and science. They were in other majors at my school such as chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering. They were in all of the grades, they were both male and female. That night, at the awards banquet, we listened to Federico Peña, Mayor of Denver, tell us that we were the leaders, the pioneers, the trailblazers who were and were becoming role models for others of the hispanic community (Peña would become the Secretary of Energy under the Clinton administration).
Finally, there was a sense of belonging. I no longer felt like the only person of my kind, alone and isolated from my culture. I vowed to join a professional chapter of the hispanic engineering society upon graduation, and to become the role model that Mayor Peña said I could be.
HEROES TO EMULATE
Mayor Peña, who went on to become the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Energy, under President Clinton, became one of my heroes. Here was a latino who rose to one of the most important governmental positions in the greatest nation on the earth. Here was a true leader. I wanted very much to be a leader myself, a positive contribution to my society. But how to do it, and where to start? Why not through the hispanic engineering society? So I began to attend SHPE's annual meetings across the country. Here, I met many others who also wanted to contribute and had been doing so through the society for a number of years. I met presidents and past presidents of SHPE national. I met entrepreneurs, latinos and latinas who had ventured on their own and were running their own engineering consulting firms. I met brilliant scientists and great engineers. I even met a latina astronaut!
These people became my heroes. They were people that I wanted to be like, to emulate. And I learned through them how powerful a mission statement and a list of goals can be to the achievement of great dreams. I learned how important it is to pour yourself into your endeavors to accomplish things beyond your expectations.
One more thing about theses heroes – they were approachable. True leaders always are. They could have been exclusive, for they were accomplished individuals with busy schedules. On the contrary, they not only were accessible and approachable, many of them introduced themselves to me. When I told one engineer that I was about to start my own engineering firm, he said "well here's a method that will really help to jump start your business&ldots;" I was dumbfounded. These were people that went out of their way to help those around them. These were true heroes.
OPPORTUNITIES TO CONTRIBUTE
I guess I just expected that when I moved to Florida after graduating from college I would be able to start attending the local chapter of SHPE. I guess I expected that others had started it and I would help to continue it. I was wrong. It took several years of preparation, planning and work to network with other latinos and start a professional chapter, but we did it. The process for success was surprisingly simple. Someone shared a vision with me, and I caught the vision. I shared the vision with another person, and he/she caught the vision. They share the vision with someone else&ldots; and so it goes.
Now if you come to Florida, you have two choices for professional chapters, the Tampa International Chapter and the Central Florida Chapter in Orlando. Both chapters are active with their respective student chapters and in the professional community. There is always an opportunity to contribute. Yes, even if the task is daunting, even if you have to start from scratch. But it's worth it. And I have always found that, with a good organization, you always get more out of it than you put in to it, and the corollary is that the more you put in, the more you gain for yourself. Here's to SHPE, a hall of heroes, a place of identity, and an opportunity to serve!