Even as a small girl in Caracas, Venezuela, Sofia Savoca knew she wanted to be an architect, an urban planner or a civil engineer.
鈥淚 liked playing with Legos more than I liked playing with Barbies, although don鈥檛 get me wrong 鈥� Barbies are cool. When I was little, I combined my Legos with my Barbie Dream House and my Polly Pocket Pollyville House into a huge mansion,鈥� says Savoca, a junior civil engineering major. 鈥淏uilding and distributing spaces has always been my calling, and engineering underlies everything.鈥澛�
Thanks to that passion and all the opportunities Savoca has embraced since arriving at UMass Lowell, she was selected as one of 10 college students for the 聽by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
In fact, she was selected as the top honoree nationally. Savoca says she鈥檚 grateful for the recognition, which came with a modest scholarship.
鈥淓verything makes a difference,鈥� she says.
Savoca鈥檚 parents were anxious to secure her an education outside Venezuela because of the ongoing political, economic and humanitarian crisis there. So her father, an electrical engineer, came to the U.S. to help friends start a business in the Boston area, and Savoca applied to colleges around New England.
She got in everywhere she applied, but UMass Lowell invited her to join the聽Honors College. That sealed the deal.
鈥淭he school that believed in me the most was UMass Lowell. I got into honors, I got the most financial aid and the staff were the most accessible to answer my questions,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen the Honors College invited me, I felt like I belonged somewhere. They wanted me, and that made things less scary.鈥�
Savoca says she loves her honors classes because they are smaller and involve more contact with professors, as well as group projects. Those have taught her to embrace teamwork and work on her communication skills, she says.
She鈥檚 also embraced teamwork through the university鈥檚聽club sports聽program, playing on a soccer team and an ultimate Frisbee team.
鈥淚 love that they let people with no previous sports experience find something they鈥檙e good at,鈥� she says.
Savoca serves as vice president of the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter and co-leads the ASCE鈥檚 outreach program to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell. The ASCE has offered great opportunities, including a trip to its annual conference to network with professionals, she says.
She鈥檚 also secretary of the Student Society for Sustainability and a member of Chi Epsilon, the civil engineering honor society, and Omicron Delta Kappa, a national honors leadership society.
She鈥檚 had no shortage of professional opportunities, either. Director聽Ruairi O鈥橫ahony聽gave Savoca her first job in the campus聽Office of Sustainability, where she worked for two years. In the summer after her freshman year, she served as an聽orientation leader.听
The following summer, she got a paid internship in the Auburn, N.H., office of Stantec, a multinational engineering and architectural firm. There, she got design experience, worked with AutoCAD and Revit 3D modeling software and learned about fluid mechanics and properties of different materials.听
鈥淭he people and my team were amazing,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he work was really interesting, and I felt appreciated.鈥�
In her junior year, Savoca began working as a research assistant for Asst. Prof.听Yuanchang Xie聽on a massive intersection analysis project for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.听
She also got trained to work as one of the first 鈥淐areer Peers鈥� for the聽Career & Co-op Center, which had helped her to get the Stantec internship.
鈥淥pportunities, opportunities 鈥� it鈥檚 raining opportunities. They鈥檙e here if you work hard and know where to look,鈥� she says. 鈥淯Mass Lowell is always looking to do what鈥檚 best for you.鈥�
Assoc. Teaching Prof. Edward Hajduk, who is also associate chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, told Savoca about the ASCE 鈥淣ew Faces鈥� opportunity 鈥� and she decided to take advantage of that, too.
Writing six short essays 鈥� about what she had learned from all of her experiences, her father鈥檚 influence as a role model, her enthusiasm for civil engineering and her hope that she might someday help to rebuild Venezuela鈥檚 infrastructure 鈥� won her the ASCE honor. And she expects even better things are ahead.
鈥淐ivil engineers construct bridges that bring people together. They construct hospitals that heal people in mind and body,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 always a way to make things better, and my profession is ever-evolving.鈥�