January 26, 2021
Dear Andrew,
Thank you so much for your letter and happy new year! I hope you and your family are
doing great. To answer your questions, the name of my university is Tecnológico de
Monterrey. Here is a picture of how far we are from each other, according to Google
Maps it would take 114 hours on a bike to get from my university to your school.
My university is near the center of my city and is very
beautiful, it has gorgeous buildings and gardens where I
would go and study or meet some of my friends before
the pandemic began. On the right are a few pictures of
my favorite places on campus.
On the background of the first picture, you can see the
‘Cerro de La Silla’ mountain, which is very well known
from Monterrey. It’s called that because it looks like a
horse’s saddle. The lab I work in is in the CETEC
building (A.K.A. napkin holder, because of the
resemblance haha). My university’s mascot is a ram, in
Spanish they’re called ‘borregos’.
After high school I began my university studies, I
recommend that you research many options and talk
with people who are working in or studying what you’re
interested in. I am studying Biomedical Engineering,
which is a new area of engineering. I spoke with my
neighbor who is a doctor, he told me a lot about how
necessary it is to improve devices he uses every day.
Fun way to
connect
distance
between
eachother
Maps help pre-
scientists
visually
understand
where you live
and learn
geography
Photos of places help pre-scientists visualize
places. Hand drawn text makes letters feel more
personalized. Different font colors are fun!
If applicable- it’s
a great
opportunity to
share aspects of
different
cultures/
languages/
lifestyles
Sometimes working on a new project or trying things out of our comfort zone can seem
very scary, but I recommend that you try new things even when you don’t feel confident
in your abilities. An example for me was a project I began working on last year; I am
helping a few companies from my city to write user manuals for a mechanical ventilator
that’s being used to help patients with coronavirus.
When a former boss called me to invite me to
work with them, I accepted but was very nervous,
I didn’t want to make mistakes and spent a lot of
time researching what I had to do. As time went
by, I learned a lot with my co-workers and
realized that it’s ok to ask questions or ask
for help in tasks I wasn’t sure how to do.
Here is a picture of the ventilator I worked
on, my teammates have nicknamed it ‘Papa
Smurf’ because it’s blue! Do you think they
look alike?
Something important to always remember is that it’s ok to feel confused sometimes and
rethink what you would like to do. I remember that when I was in high school, I was
always so frightened that I changed my mind about what I wanted to study like 10 times!
Talking with my friends and professors about what I was feeling then was what helped
me choose Biomedical Engineering as a major.
I also struggled a lot with science when I was younger. Whenever you learn about
science try to think about things you’ve seen that use science; for example, if you’ve
ever been to the beach, try to remember how it felt and how the sea changed
depending on the weather and the time of day. You can also watch YouTube videos to
get a visual image of what you’re learning, here’s a neat video by AtomicSchool that
explains the ocean’s tides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RdkXs8BibE .
To answer your last questions,
1. I like playing Minecraft and Mario Sunshine.
2. My favorite subject is also math!
3. My favorite candy is a Mexican candy called ‘Kranky’, they taste
like cornflakes with chocolate:
4. My favorite chips are sour cream & onion Pringles!
5. I use android.
I look forward to your next letter and I wish you all the best this new
year!
Sincerely,
Ana Cris
Encouraging pre-scientist to try new things!
Acknowledging potential challenges/hesitations humanizes STEM pen pals.