Name: Elena Garcia

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Year of graduation: 2007

What are you currently doing? Working for Accenture

Member of SOLES from: 2002 to 2007

Positions held in SOLES: Secretary, ACES Director

What did you like most about being in SOLES? Conferences – family unity

What did you learn from being in SOLES? Work hard - play hard

What SOLES event(s) did you like the most? Family day - WISE

What advice would you give to young SOLES members? Keep up your grades but don't forget to have fun and enjoy yourselves!

What would you like to see changed/new in SOLES? I would love a tighter soles/alumni connection.

Name: Ada Osoy

Major: Civil Engineering

Year of graduation: 1999

What are you currently doing? Transportation at Caltrans

Member of SOLES from: 1994 to 1999

Positions held in SOLES: none

What did you like most about being in SOLES? outreach, academic resources.

What SOLES event(s) did you like the most? The all day events when schools came to campus.

What advice would you give to young SOLES members? To stay involved and reach out to the younger generation.

What would you like to see changed/new in SOLES? More involvement from students and alumni.

Name: Joe Munoz

Major: Computer Science

Year of graduation: 1999

What are you currently doing? Currently? Typing this response =P But for a living, I'm a Software Engineer/Architect. Right now I'm working for a company called Seven Networks. Over the last 8 years I've worked for IBM, Sony Pictures, and Movielink to name a few.

Member of SOLES from: 1995 to 1999

Positions held in SOLES: Freshmen Representative

What did you like most about being in SOLES? For me the best part of SOLES was ACES tutoring. Besides just the whole comradery that comes out of being an active member of SOLES, it really gave me an opportunity to get involved in the community. ACES was by far the most rewarding of those opportunities.

What did you learn from being in SOLES? SOLES taught me a lot about how to be a leader and how to effectively communicate your ideas to a group of people. I think that even if you aren't on the board of SOLES, just by virtue of actively participating in meetings that you get a good understanding of leadership and group dynamics. I find that SOLES, and just the entire CEED office in general, does a fantastic job of creating an environment where the leadership capabilities of its members can brought out and nurtured. I'm sure on the average you will find more great motivators and public speakers from the CEED subset of engineering students versus the general UCLA engineering student body. At least it seems that way to me!

What SOLES event(s) did you like the most? It definitely has to be the quarterly potlucks! Bear in mind, however, that when I was in SOLES there was always food at the potlucks and people generally bonded together over a good meal prior to dancing the night away. The potlucks were great in that they gave some of the younger students an opportunity to interact with the older ones in a very casual environment thus making it easier to ask them for help with your homework later.

What advice would you give to young SOLES members? Take advantage of the community outreach and leadership opportunities SOLES provides, especially if the prospect of organizing an event of talking in front of a crowd of people makes you nervous. The more involved you are in organizations like SOLES the more well-rounded you will be as an engineer and a person. It has been my experience outside of UCLA that the most successful engineers are the ones that can be great leaders and motivators. It's not all about solving problems! Granted, that's a big part of it, but almost anyone who gets a degree in engineering can solve a problem. It's those who can get others excited about their solutions and who can work well within a group that achieve the greatest levels of success...and besides, being an active member of SOLES is just plain fun. Don't miss out!

What would you like to see changed/new in SOLES? I think that the biggest challenge I have seen with SOLES has always been in getting its alumni to lend a hand. Sure there are exceptions, but there orders of magnitude more SOLES alumni than there are exceptions. There have been efforts in the past to try to get them (us) more involved, and I think that just this very sort of questionnaire is a good start.

Name: Heidy A. Muñoz

Major: Chemical Engineering

Year of graduation: 2001

What are you currently doing? Sales Engineer for Siemens Water Technologies, Environmental Services

Member of SOLES from: 1997 to 2001

Positions held in SOLES: Vice President, 99-007

What did you like most about being in SOLES? Support System & Friendships

What did you learn from being in SOLES? Networking

What SOLES event(s) did you like the most? Outreach & Tailgates :P

What advice would you give to young SOLES members? Stay on top of your grades. It matters more than you think.

What would you like to see changed/new in SOLES? nothing, you guys are PERFECT!!

Name: Dave Contreras

Major: Math of Computation B.S., International Business MBA

Year of graduation: UCLA 2002, Pepperdine 2006

What are you currently doing? Sales for IBM

Member of SOLES from: 1998 to 2002

Positions held in SOLES: Vice president 2001-2002

What did you like most about being in SOLES? Network

What did you learn from being in SOLES? it's possible to get good jobs after UCLA

What SOLES event(s) did you like the most? socials, outreach events, industry workshops, NTCC, Rick dinners =) (I got all my jobs/internships through SOLES)

What advice would you give to young SOLES members? Network it up. The same people you party with will be recruiting you in a couple years.

What would you like to see changed/new in SOLES? have alumni talk about our mistakes in professional life so current members don't make same mistakes