Dr. Idalis Villanueva discovered her interest in engineering sometime during high school when her chemistry teacher in Puerto Rico began pushing her in that direction.
“She encouraged me to really think about chemical engineering as a career path and was one of the motivating factors, which is why I ended up choosing engineering,” says Villanueva, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2004 from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez and later a master’s and doctoral degree in chemical and biological engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
A first-generation college student, Villanueva’s parents stressed the importance of a college education for their three children even though they hadn’t earned a college degree themselves. Her mother started college but later dropped out, and her father had not finished high school.
Still, at an early age, Villanueva was particularly motivated by her father’s ability to fix things.
“To see how he could just quickly pick up a magazine, read it, learn how to build things and just do it well, was very inspiring for me to see growing up,” says Villanueva.
Now, Villanueva is an assistant professor of engineering education at Utah State University, where she is using her own experience as a first-generation, Latina woman to help inspire students — especially women and people of color — to pursue and excel in STEM fields.
The number of minorities in STEM, she says, remains dismal.
