Hello everyone! My name is Emilio Gonzalez. I am 23 years old and grew up in Leonia, New Jersey, a small town right outside of New York City. I am a proud Cuban and Puerto Rican American and a second generation college student. My hobbies include music production, sketching, traveling, snowboarding, skateboarding, hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities. One of the rules I live by is always surround yourself with things or people that make you happy. I currently live in Los Angeles, California and love every second of it. I graduated from Rutgers University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with a minor in Urban Planning and Design. Now, I am at the University of Southern California studying a Master of Science in Transportation Engineering.

My journey with engineering started when I was a child. Since a young age, I have always been interested in rail. I had many train-related toys, loved train watching, and riding on trains for fun. I became interested in construction as I grew older and became inspired by Los Angeles project developments. For this reason, I decided to pursue a career in civil engineering. I eventually became interested in rail design after having two roadway design internships. Taking urban planning classes in my undergrad made me realize that building rail and transit is more sustainable, environmentally friendly, and rewarding to work on. Evidently, my early fascination with rail never went away.

California has an ample amount of work in this concentration of transportation so I enrolled in graduate school at USC knowing I will stay in the Los Angeles area long term. The city is investing an ample amount of capital into rail in an effort to address many of the transportation issues that exist in the region. With the creation of a more sustainable metropolitan area, this makes Los Angeles the city of opportunity; my plan is to be apart of that process. Currently, my goals are to complete the FE exam, learn Spanish, spend more time on music production, gain a full-time position as a transit engineer, and become more involved in various Latinx groups across Southern California.