Julissa Tejeda attended St. Simon Stock and graduated from Aquinas High School in 2014. Now, Julissa is studying civil engineering at Columbia University and interned at the New York City Department of Design and Construction over the summer.
Q&A with CSF Alumna Julissa
Transitioning to college:
“It has been an interesting and a humbling experience. All of my life, I was on top of my classes. School was a breeze. Now I am in a room full of the best students. I’ve learned to stop defining myself just by my grades. Building a strong social group and support group is just as important, and asking for help is so key in transitioning into college. Often times, you think you are the only one going through something. But that’s not true.”
Being a part of a larger community:
“I am the funding chair for Engineers Without Borders at Columbia. We work with an NGO, Pilgrim Africa, in ten communities in Uganda. Since 2007, we have implemented Multi-Function Platforms, engines with attachments that process crops, in these communities. At the start of this project, it was just a group of community members who saw a problem. Now, the communities and their leaders have come together to work as a team and they are encouraged to create real solutions. To witness the progress is really a joy. As our MFP project winds down, we are considering taking on a bridge project. I write grants to fund the project and to help fund student trips during winter and summer breaks.”
Something that changed her perspective:
“Since freshman year of Aquinas, we talked about college. The students from Aquinas went to great schools, so I was always encouraged and I saw going to Columbia as a real possibility. Right now, I am a teaching assistant at an inner-city public school through a nonprofit engineering organization that another Columbia graduate started. I teach computer science to sixth grade classes and it is honestly scary at times. The atmosphere is so different than what I experienced in school. They fight. They disrespect you. The commotion and the distraction prohibit learning from taking place.
But there is always a little group of students who are doing the work despite the chaos. And they are inspiring. Many of these kids are told from the get-go that they are not going to succeed. When you understand their mind set, you understand why they act that way. If I hadn’t had my scholarship and opportunity I did, I don’t think I would have aspired to reach as high and believe that I could get into my dream school, Columbia. It has also made me appreciate my mom’s decision to send me to Catholic school. I didn’t see how beneficial it really was at the time.
To our CSF donors:
“Thank you. It’s easy to help someone when you can see the results right away. But you took a risk by investing in my future. With education, it takes a little bit of time to see the effects. It takes time to see if it has really made a difference in the long run. If you hadn’t taken that risk, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity. And I wouldn’t be taking a risk on myself.”
A lesson that she has learned:
“Don’t help someone because someone is going to give you praise and gratitude. Give and help others because it is in your heart. Don’t look at a situation with the mind set of getting something out of it. Removing myself from the situation and being selfless—that’s when I feel the most joy.”