Internship!!!!

This past year I completed my sophomore year at Texas A&M as I pursue my degree in Civil Engineering. As the fall semester flew by I began to think to myself that it’s time to go after some work in the field of engineering. I started to ask around about internships by talking to parents, teachers, former engineering students I know, and people through the studen-run American Society of Civil Engineers on campus.

 I was eventually tipped off about a small and hard-working civil engineering firm located in downtown  San Antonio. The suggestion came from my dad’s former college roommate and his wife after a Sunday mass at our church. I decided to pursue this by contacting the owners by email and by phone…….

Gonzalez - De La Garza & Associates

This summer I am blessed and lucky enough to have an internship with that hard-working firm also known as Gonzalez – De La Garza and Associates of San Antonio, Texas (or GDA for short). After making contact I was asked to come in to talk about the firm, my schooling, and about what I would be working on as an intern. Ayda Gonzalez and Edward De La Garza were nice enough to answer my emails/phone calls and bring me aboard for the summer.

 Ayda and Edward are the owners and Professional Engineers of their own Civil Engineering firm in the Milam Building located at downtown San Antonio. Ayda Gonzalez is a proud member of the Fight’n Texas Aggie Class of 1997 and her partner Edward is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Class of 1998. Both Ayda and Edward hold degrees in Civil Engineering and both are liscensed professional engineers. This means that they have both taken and passed the Professional Engineering Exam or “PE.”

You might ask: “What do civil engineers do?”

I asked Ayda that very same question and she was happy to let me know as Civil Engineers, what her and Edward do :

 ”We’re a Civil Engineering firm that deals with mostly horizontal design. This includes land development, water and sewer design, roadway design, and drainage design. We are also involved in permitting. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will sometimes require permits for projects so we will work with them and FEMA to secure those permits.

We also put in for requests for proposals. This is when a public entity like the city, county, or TexDot puts out a new project they will then ask consultants to put in a proposal for it. Then they’ll select who they want to do the project based on that proposal. We network to get our name out as well as doing great work.”

From left to right: Jorge, Yeiko, Marty, y yo.

I really like working at at this firm because they really do bring something else to the table when compared to other firms. They are a small minority/women owned firm with quite the international presence as well. Out of the six people who work here, two are from Mexico. 

I work closely with three others and we all help each other to finish projects. Intern Marty Gonzales is currently working on his bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from UTSA. Another intern, Yeiko Kanagusico, is an Industrial Engineering graduate from Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, a very prestigious university in Mexico. Project Engineer, Jorge Sepulveda is a Civil Engineering graduate from La Salle University en Torreon, Coahuila Mexico. Marty and I are really picking up a lot of Spanish from Jorge and Yeiko as we all work on projects together.

It’s awesome to work downtown even with the commute! I’m especially motivated to get to work early so I can have time to swing by one of the many great Taquerias for some breakfast tacos! The atmosphere here is full of great work ethic and an optimistic outlook on the future. Edward and Ayda are constantly giving me great advice including on ways to improve.

“One big piece of advice I can lend to you is to no matter what, stay in school and work hard. Appreciate being in school at the moment and strive to always do your best.

For engineering students, don’t get too stressed out. Take time to go visit a firm that does the kind of work you are studying, and look at their products to see if its something interesting  you want to do” -Edward De La Garza, P.E.