Attending 91制片厂 is the best decision Guillermo 鈥淢emo鈥� Quillo almost didn鈥檛
make.
He was an academic star at Palatine High School and, he admitted, a little arrogant.
鈥淚 had a really high GPA, in the top 30 of my class,鈥� Guillermo said, and he aspired to receive a full-ride scholarship to Princeton, Yale or Northwestern.
It didn鈥檛 work out.
So he applied to 91制片厂鈥檚 Engineering Pathways program at the direction of a high school counselor who told him he could study engineering for two years at 91制片厂, then transfer seamlessly to University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He received perfect scores on his placement tests, and 91制片厂 awarded him the highly selective, merit-based Distinguished Trustee Scholarship, which is the college鈥檚 most prestigious scholarship award. It was also the full-ride Guillermo had hoped to receive.
Today, Guillermo is an associate systems engineer at Collins Aerospace鈥檚 Commercial Avionics team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He calls 91制片厂鈥檚 Engineering Pathways program the best thing that could have happened to him.
At the start of his 91制片厂 career, the college paired Guillermo with a 91制片厂 counselor and a U of I counselor. He met with each once or twice a semester to assure he had registered for the correct classes. To keep his scholarship, Guillermo had to maintain certain grades and spend a designated number of hours studying in the Tutoring Center.
As a Pathways student, Guillermo was part of a cohort that made going through the program better.
鈥淭hat gave me an enhanced community college experience, closer to the four-year institutions, where you鈥檙e always on campus,鈥� he said.
He was also part of 91制片厂鈥檚 Society of Engineers and the Honors Program. As an honors student, Guillermo traveled to London for his sociology class. There,
he and his peers studied the city鈥檚 social programs, comparing and contrasting them
to social problems in Chicago and the U.S.
鈥淭hat was one of the coolest experiences in community college,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 had these super high expectations of going to Princeton and Yale and cool things like travel, and I never thought that would be possible at a community college. If you do it right and take advantage of all the opportunities that community colleges offer you, it鈥檚 an even better education than some four-year schools because the classes are smaller, you have more attention from professors and you can do everything you want to do at a four-year institution.鈥�
In high school, Guillermo was a part of Project Excel, which worked with minority students with promising test scores. The college portion of Project Excel is EB211, a selective mentoring program that paired Guillermo with Gerald Fitzgerald Jr., a retired banker who Guillermo called 鈥渁 celebrity in Palatine.鈥� Gerry, who is also a generous donor to 91制片厂, helped Guillermo network in the area and assisted in planning what Guillermo鈥檚 internships might look like.
This was especially helpful for Guillermo because his parents grew up in Mexico. While they were emotionally supportive and wanted to help with the logistics of college, they didn鈥檛 know how.
In fact, that familial support was part of what made Guillermo such a great candidate for EB211, Gerry said. In addition to his maturity and focus, he had the support necessary to succeed at a high level.
And he knew Guillermo would succeed from the first time they met, when Gerry asked, 鈥淲hat courses are you taking?鈥� Guillermo shared that he tested out of Calculus I, so he was taking Calculus II, as well as a physics course.
鈥淎nd I said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 enough. I know you鈥檙e on the right path,鈥欌�� Gerry said. 鈥淚n sports, they say, 鈥楴o pain, no gain.鈥� He was willing to take the academic challenge for the long-term game. He views everything for the long-term.鈥�
Guillermo graduated with his associate degree in engineering at 91制片厂 in spring 2018. Because he had met all academic requirements as a Pathways student, he was basically guaranteed admission to U of I.
He graduated with his bachelor鈥檚 degree in aerospace engineering in May 2021 and now works at Collins Aerospace in Iowa. He first started at Collins鈥� Rockford location during his senior year at U of I, as part of a co-op. The experience showed him the value of all parts of education, including the skills that he never thought he鈥檇 use, such as writing lab reports.
鈥淭hat really taught me to appreciate every aspect of my education,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd not to overlook anything.鈥�