Westminster Christian School senior Gabriel Segura has been accepted to five universities but he’s still weighing his options as to which one to attend. He received acceptances from the University of Miami, the University of Rochester, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Virginia Tech and Purdue.
Visits to the top contenders are expected to help the decision-making process. That tour was in the works for this month.
While still not sure where he’s going, he is sure about his major. He’ll major in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. He’ll also take business classes – ideally those dealing with entrepreneurship. Segura hopes to later earn an MBA.
He likes the idea that industrial engineering can help makes systems more efficient. When he was at Georgia Tech for a three-week summer program, he and his team worked on making a food distribution system for developing countries not only more efficient but more cost effective.
“That’s what I’m interested in, both the business aspect and how it allows me to help communities around the world,” he says.
That summer program helped him decide that industrial engineer was the right field for him.
“Before that I didn’t have that much knowledge of the field,” he says. “My dad was an industrial engineer and did well in his field.”
He says majoring in industrial engineering should help him with the social and leadership skills he wants to develop further.
Segura has already started his own business for repairing hardware from cell phones to 3D printers. He’s also capable of building 3D printers – he’s built two them for himself. The first one he sold at a profit.
“That helps me improve on my CAD skills,” he says. “I am able to take the idea I have and turn it into a physical object in a matter of hours.”
In middle school he attended a summer program in Wynwood called Learn01.io. As a rising sophomore he went back as a counselor to teach the children attending the program how to use 3D printers, build circuits, and design robots. He also repaired the program’s 3D printer.
At Westminster, Segura is president of the VEX Warriors Robotics Club. He was one of the founding members of the two-year old club. This year, club members accomplished significantly more than they did last year. In fact, they qualified for the state championship tournament, coming fourteenth out of 44 teams.
Last year, the team never made it past third to last place at any event while this year they were able to rank first in the preliminary competitions and they made it to the semi-finals twice.
The Robotics Club had seven or eight sponsors that helped the team obtain much of the equipment they needed to make the robots.
His interest in being an entrepreneur led him to start the Entrepreneurs Club.
“The club is meant to inspire students to build up the leader and entrepreneurial spirit,” he says.
Segura fulfilled his desire to go on one of the school mission trips last year. He helped raise money for the mission to Nicaragua.
“We spent a week building a house for a family in need,” he says. “We had to raise funds for buying concrete, wheelbarrows, supports, corrugated metal, and furniture.”
They raised the money by organizing a 5 K Family Run which featured a silent auction.
“We also had a toy and supply drive at Westminster. Any student could buy some toys or supplies these kids needed at the school,” he says. “We spend an afternoon handing out supplies to the kids. It really was a great experience.”
Linda Bernfeld Rodriguez
