Hi, my name is Felipe Correa and I am a freshman majoring in computer engineering. I come from an Ecuadorian family living in Pittsburgh, PA, and have an older brother who is a Swanson alum. In my free time outside of school, I like to play soccer. I play as much as I can, usually pickup with some friends. I have played soccer for almost my entire life, so it will be interesting to see how it is in Korea. Some other international travel experience I have is Spain, this past summer I traveled to Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, and Barcelona with my family. I have also gone to Quito, Ecuador a number of times in the past. I am very excited to experience all of Korea, I really want to try all of the food I can and I am also very excited to travel to the DMZ.

A little more about school, I am heavily involved with SHPE, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Earlier this school year in November, I traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, for the national convention. There I was able to develop a lot professionally, being exposed to my first career fair and connecting to a lot of other engineers from many other schools in a professional environment. Currently, I am a freshman representative of the Pitt chapter of SHPE, and next year I will be the Internal Vice President. I am also a member of IEEE, which I plan to be more involved with in the coming years.

This summer I will be going to South Korea as part of the Plus3 program. This program is focused on “smart systems”, which is a very exciting topic to me. Being a computer engineer, when looking at the possible locations for Plus3, learning about smart systems instantly caught my eye. The opportunity to go to a place like Korea which is internationally known as a very technologically advanced country to add to my skills for my degree which I will then be able to apply further down the line was a no brainer. I can’t wait to learn about things that pertain specifically to my major field of study in a place with world-class technology and systems.

Personally, traveling is also something I am very excited about. I love learning about different cultures in the world and going to places which really are like a different planet from what I’m used to. I hope to get the most out of every cultural experience while I’m there, from the public transport to the restaurants to the shopping districts. Another thing that has really intrigued me from photos and videos is the architecture. There are some buildings there that are absolutely nothing like anything I’ve ever seen.

Professionally, I am certain this trip will help me develop as well. Going to visit company sites will be great experiences for me to not only see more of what is out there for work for me in the future, but also make initial connections with these companies. There are so many huge tech companies in the area, so the experience of seeing their facilities especially in Korea where everything seems to be so far advanced from here will be priceless.