On Thursday, March 14, STEM peer mentor Venus John and her fellow peer mentors from the STEM Leadership Consortium (Gishan Ali, Alexandra Davila, Francisco Delacruz, Nona Fulmore Harris, Sydney Gilmore, Ariel Molina, Alissa Morton, Salem Nasereddin, Ryan Ramirez-Rivera, Elizabeth Ramos, and Justin Santiago) under the guidance of STEM Success Coaches Kathleen Vancheri and Russell Gambino, spoke about the importance of Pi throughout history, along with significant achievements of women in STEM, with the goal of encouraging others to become more knowledgeable about what the STEM Department here at Passaic County Community College (PCCC) can provide for students.
The guest speaker for the day was Michelle Ramos, a PCCC alumni and a past participant of PCCC’s STEM program. Ms. Ramos graduated from PCCC in December of 2020, transferred to NJIT where she studied biomedical engineering and graduated NJIT with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Ms. Ramos is currently employed as a professional engineer working at Stryker Corporation in Mahwah, NJ, a leading manufacturer of implants and other medical equipment such as motorized beds for hospitals and computerized machines that can conduct medical procedures without human intervention.
In her current position at Stryker, she fills the role of team leader of manufacturing. When asked, Ms. Ramos explained that her typical day might consists of department meetings where they discuss plans and goals or communications with other areas of the company. She also stated that she enjoyed leaving her office to walk around the actual manufacturing floor where she can see her designs become reality.
“Every day is different and exciting,” she says.
Prior to Ms. Ramos attending PCCC, she claimed that she had a challenging time asking for help because of the “fear of people thinking I wasn’t smart”. When arriving at PCCC, the STEM Department “hugged” her into the environment that she is currently in and aided her in a plethora of ways. She even had the opportunity to intern at NASA.
Michelle Ramos had one final thing to say:
“I thank PCCC for where I am now!”
Students are encouraged to join the STEM Student Meetup every Thursday afternoon at 2:30 PM in Room E210 or on Zoom (Id 93557467941) for more information about paid internships, scholarships, and other opportunities.