Baseline is proud to support future engineers at Colorado State University’s (CSU) College of Engineering. This year, the Baseline Engineering Scholarship was awarded to Florencio Guzman Diaz who is a junior from Trinidad, CO and majoring in environmental engineering.
Florencio Guzman Diaz, Environmental Engineering, Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering, Scholarship student, Colorado State University, August 27, 2019
“The scope of my intended major environmental engineering is wide and vast. The areas of specialization encompass the fundamentals of civil engineering to chemical engineering to even mechanical engineering. They range from air quality control to chemical processing, but of them all, two areas of interest within environmental engineering are the reasons why I chose that major.
Of all the areas within environmental engineering that excite me, energy conversion is first in my list. Being one of the many engineers that help our society move away from fossil fuels and to more alternative forms of energy has been one of my goals for quite some time now. Companies such as Tesla and SolarCity have been the biggest source of inspiration for finding new sources of energy that can be practical and stylish. Biofuels in particular is very intriguing to me. I have always pictured a future where the waste we humans produce can be turned into efficient power sources to charge our smartphones and heat our homes. Just the thought of working with automobile manufactures to convert gasoline cars to take vegetable oil or run on hydrogen makes me very excited to major in environmental engineering.
The second involves water resources and treatment. Water is of the utmost importance for our survival of life on our planet, and this is way being involved in water management and treatment and hydrology is extremely exciting to me. I have always aspired to be an engineer that works with studying and managing the availability of water in our aquifers and reservoirs. Finding ways to providing adequate amounts of water that is both safe and clean for humans and the environment is especially appealing to me as we face climate change and other environmental issues. The growing water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa was only further increased my desire to be the problem-solver of the future’s water crisis.
There are many other areas of environmental engineering that are intriguing, but none are as exciting as energy conversion and water resources and treatment. As we brace for a head-on collision with climate change and global warming, new methods to help mitigate their effects will be tremendously important. What better way to start than by changing our addiction of fossil fuels. The most important resource on our planet also requires the innovation of engineers to ensure our global sustainability.”
The deadline for next year’s scholarship is March 1, 2020. Students can access more information on CSU’s website. The scholarship criteria includes the following and is renewable up to four years:
- Fulltime undergraduate student within the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Majoring in Civil/Environmental Engineering
- Minimum overall 2.75 GPA
- Preference given to students from rural communities covering a six-state region
Baseline Engineering Corporation’s Founder and President, John McLain, is a CSU graduate. He created the scholarship to encourage students to pursue careers in civil and environmental engineering. “Baseline has been a wonderful supporter of CSU engineering students for many years,” says CSU’s Director of Development, Matthew Carlyon.
