Felipe Valdez took advantage of every possible opportunity at NASA, working his way from undergraduate intern to his current job as a flight controls engineer.
Felipe Valdez, a NASA engineer at Armstrong Flight Research Center's Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory, stands next to a subscale model of the Hybrid Quadrotor (HQ-90) aircraft. NASA / Charles Genaro Vavuris Felipe Valdez is someone who took advantage of every possible opportunity at NASA, working his way from undergraduate intern to his current job as a flight controls engineer. Born in the United States but raised in Mexico, Valdez faced significant challenges growing up. "My mom worked long hours, my dad battled addiction, and eventually, school became unaffordable," Valdez said. Determined to continue his education, Valdez made the difficult choice to leave his family and return to the U.S. But as a teenager, learning English and adapting to a new environment was a culture shock for him. Despite these changes, his curiosity for subjects such as math and science never wavered. "As a kid, I'd always been good with numbers and fascinated by how things worked. Engineering combined both," Valdez said. "This sparked my interest." While he pursued an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, Sacramento,…