Hello, my name is Evelyn Castillo. I was born in Washington State but I was raised in Mexico for 14 years, then I moved to NYC with my dad 5 years ago. I currently live in The Bronx and this is my first semester at City Tech. I was previously enrolled in the California Institute of Technology and I lived in Pasadena, California for almost 2 years until I decided to transfer to City Tech to live closer to my family and friends.
California Institute of Technology in spring term.
I am currently a Mechanical Engineer major although I am still considering to double major in ME and CS with a minor in English or Psychology. This was also one reason I transferred (it is impossible to double major in Caltech or even minor since the academics are extremely challenging). I think of City Tech as one of many stop of my long education career and I hope to make the best out of it.
My room (and any Caltech student room) at 2 am
Some of my favorite activities are reading, learning new languages, and visiting new places. I’ve traveled a few times between New York, California, and Mexico. Because I had to travel many times in between it was really hard to keep my books together so right now I only have a few. I enjoy reading any type of genre from poems, to articles, essays, short stories, autobiographies, self development, thriller, etc. My favorite book is The Little Prince since it was the first book I read for simple fun back in Mexico.
Current hold of books (currently reading The Odyssey).
I am also very passionate about space. My biggest dream is to become an astronaut and experience those amazing views of space with my own eyes. I am extremely enthusiastic to feel zero gravity. Additionally I am intrigued by research on quasars, black holes and possible life on other planets.
Me in a NASA JPL tour
NASA JPL Telescope
Another of my passions is nanofabrication, I am fascinated by how such small devices can help to save lives, for example, I investigated how we can apply these small techniques to organs that can be potentially be fabricated using small channels and valves that will help the organ to control fluids at nano scale.
Nanofabrication lab process
Lastly, a fun fact is that I was invited to a conference about the ERO Mission and I was one of the first persons to hear about the mission in which NASA in collaboration with ERO will send a space craft to Mars to collect samples of Mars ground and will return to Earth to be analyzed and tested to understand if there could possibly be a chance for humans to visit Mars. It will hopefully be launch in 2027 and the sample will be expected to return in 2033.
Astronomy is also one area of interest to me, and given the recent advances in space launch systems and technologies by government agencies and companies, I am hopeful that humanity’s true space age will begin sometime in our lifetimes and its inherent boost towards technological and scientific process will allow the average person to experience orbit or even travel to other bodies in the solar system.
I know this is definitely is a possibility and I hope to be part of it too!
hi Evelyn, ten year old me wishes I was you right now. when I was little I wanted to do the same things that your doing right now.it must’ve been a real honor to be invited to such an event. what did you find the hardest thing about moving to new York was?
Hi Kayla! omg your comment is so sweet! and it really was an honor to be invited. The hardest part of moving to New York the first time was definitely the cold. I hateeeee winter so much. I am so used to feel the sunlight everyday in Mexico and I miss it. Looking forward to the spring and summerrr!
Very good intro! I learned many interesting things about you. First that you were a student at CAL TECH. (I have been to visit that campus with my son who was thinking of applying, but did not because it’s a long shot.) That’s amazing that you were a CAL TECH student! How many semesters did you do there? Are you sorry to have left? What was the work load and the students like there?
We need more women who want to work in space, NASA, and aeronautic field.
And glad to have another reader in the class. Wonderful that you are reading the Odyssey. Here is a NYT aritlce about a new edition that is the first ever translation by a woman. It’s receiving good reviews!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/magazine/the-first-woman-to-translate-the-odyssey-into-english.html
More women making their mark on the world! And you will be next.
Yes, definitely moving to California is such a big decision since its so far away. I did 3 semester at Caltech and I am definitely not sorry I left since I am happier right now. The work load in there is extreme, professor truly expect students to leave aside their social life for academics. We are required to have at least 4-5 classes, it takes about 3 days to finish one homework so basically once finishing one homework, I will have to start right away the next one, and then the next one. So basically every day is homework and classes, this was draining for me and a lot of my friends agree. It is just a very heavy course load. People there are nice, but definitely feels more like trying to networking rather than making friendships all the time (at least for me), some people can be nice but there was not enough time to socialize besides communicating for doing homework.
I read the article! it is so interesting to have a new perspective from woman, although she does refer that to her gender in literature does not matter, I think it can definitely affect one’s perspective.