Explore Engineering Day
Texas A&M University Kingsville
KINGSVILLE, TEXAS (News Release) - As part of the Engineers Week 2025 (E-Week), The Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) hosted more than 400 high school and middle school students and chaperones during its Explore Engineering Day event Wednesday morning at Kingsville’s J.K. Northway Exposition Center.
Explore Engineering Day is an event designed to inspire young students while showcasing what the world of engineering and the TAMUK College of Engineering have to offer through hands-on activities, informational booths and more.
“Explore Engineering Day is part of our big celebration of E-Week because it’s important to bring awareness to engineering,” said Dr. Heidi Taboada, Professor and Dean of the College of Engineering. “We not only wanted to provide kids with opportunities to explore the different departments, but also other supporting units that we have available here at the university. We want them to realize that it’s not only math and numbers when they join engineering. They will have a real life here with us and we will help them succeed.”
There were 20 schools from the South Texas region in attendance, ranging from local schools, San Antonio and all the way down to Brownsville.
Representatives from university offices, student organizations and all engineering departments hosted booths with hands-on building and experimental activities, robotic demonstrations and information.
“I learned about all the things I could go in to and what types of engineering departments there are,” said an eighth grader from Bishop “I learned about all the different jobs there are and how they could benefit me in the future. My favorite has been computer science. It taught me that there are so many different things that you could use that for and all the different resources available in this one field.”
Attendees were also presented with performances from Grupo Herencia Javelina[JN1] Folklorico and the Javelina Sapphires.
“It was all very exciting, there was a lot of pressure, coordinating and a lot of things we had to put together to make this event happen,” said Jesus Reina, Director of Outreach and External Relations for the College of Engineering. “We reached out to university resources, our engineering departments, student organizations and even industry partners to get out here. Everyone was so excited to help get these schools out here to impact these future minds. We want to help them and we want them to see what opportunities are available to them and what opportunities are available to their future and beyond.”
Hanson Professional Services, a national consulting firm that provides engineering, planning and allied services, and CNF Technologies, a cyber-security contractor, were two industry partners in attendance during Wednesday’s event.
Willie Rivera, a Hanson senior project manager, engineer and Texas A&I graduate who currently sits on the Dean’s Leadership Board and the Civil Engineering board, was pleased to see the turnout of younger students showing interest in the field.
“This is a younger group that we’re normally dealing with,” Rivera said. “This being a younger group, they have different kinds of questions. We had a game we played if they wanted a prize where they named five items they interacted with from when they left their school to when they got here that were designed by engineers. Some of them answered pretty quickly…others were kind of stumped and you could tell they were kind of young and haven’t figured out what engineers do. Once they start listening, they say ‘Oh, wow, that’s what they do?’ It’s neat to talk to the younger people.”
For CNF Technologies Principal and fellow Texas A&I alum Roxanne Ramirez, meeting the interested students was a chance to peek at the potential future of engineering.
“Coming back and looking at all these kids…the future engineers are walking around me,” Ramirez said. “It makes me so happy. I talked to so many young kids. They tell me they want to do computer science; mechanical and civil engineering and it makes me so happy that A&M-Kingsville is going to produce all these wonderful people to take care of us. They are the future and it doesn’t matter what field they go into. They’re all going to be there to help build something or protect us with cyber, or through robotics.”
Students were also able to win door prizes via raffles, but seniors were surprised with the opportunity to win one of six $1,000 scholarships from the college of engineering.
Scholarship winners were:
Isaac Mann, South San Antonio (Interested in Industrial Engineering)
Antonio Vasquez, Orange Grove (Interested in Mechanical Engineering)
Emery Johnson, Corpus Christi Moody (Interested in Computer Science)
Joselyn Vidales, South San Antonio (Interested in Architectural Engineering)
Marcos Villarreal, Robstown Early College High School (Interested in Animal Science)
Aaliyah Perez, Santa Gertrudis Academy (Interested in Architectural Engineering)
