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Sprinting to the finish line without looking back is what Vienna Yee does on the track. But when it comes to providing a path to higher education, her eyes are always on those coming behind her!

"The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, otherwise known as SHPE, is an organization whose main objective is to encourage the Hispanic community to realize their fullest potential and impact the world through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) awareness, access, support, and development," she said.

"I first joined SHPE because I saw a group of Latinos developing themselves into leaders, engineers, and scientists."

Although SHPE's physical presence is limited due to the size of the minority population at RPI, its impact is great.

With the financial support received from grants by the School of Engineering and the national organization for SHPE, Yee, the organization's Outreach Director, has been able to not only network and travel extensively, but extend the pipeline to Hispanics in STEM fields as well.

One of the greatest contributions SHPE brings to RPI is an increase in diversity. Its main resource is the SHPE Outreach program, which recruits under-represented high school students from New York City and the greater Capital Region to spend a weekend at the university.

Vienna, a senior from New Paltz, N.Y., believes it is important that universities like RPI have outreach programs to ensure that the youth of today have an awareness of STEM and its benefits. Since the program is led entirely by the students of RPI, the message conveyed is even more empowering to high school students.

"Several students who attended our program have wound up coming to RPI and pursing engineering," said Yee.

Staying true to the CLASS initiative, the members of SHPE are "Una Familia," as they call it, and keep in contact with the students who decide to attend, encouraging them during their career at RPI. By endeavoring to be a role model for high school students, Yee inspires the future engineers of RPI!