Soon after Oscar Sosa Cordova graduates from Cal State Fullerton this month with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he will start a summer job at SafeWork CM, a project management company in Anaheim. Then he plans to pursue a master’s degree.
The first person in his family to graduate from college, Sosa Cordova is acutely aware of the opportunities he’s had that were never available to his parents, who were farmers in Mexico before coming to the U.S.
This awareness motivated him to make the most of every resource Cal State Fullerton offered, and then, in turn, to help others take advantage of those resources.
Sosa Cordova became a McNair Scholar, a program that prepares undergraduate students for doctoral studies. He also served as president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at Cal State Fullerton.
As a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) student, he could only apply for scholarships that did not require U.S. citizenship.
Growing up in Anaheim, Sosa Cordova always assumed he was born in the U.S. like his friends. But he eventually learned that he was born in Veracruz, Mexico, and came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 3.
During high school, Sosa Cordova worked at a part-time job to help support his parents and siblings. He had no idea how to apply to college.
“I didn’t know the difference between colleges nor how to navigate them,” he said. “It was not until I got into the PUENTE Program at Katella High School with Ms. Gracian that I became more exposed to the college system.”
His grades were good, and he dreamed of applying to the UCs and CSUs. He quickly realized he could not afford them, and putting his family in debt to pay for his schooling was out of the question. Instead, he got a full-time job right after high school, working 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week.
“I was making enough money to help support my family with the rent,” Sosa Cordova said. “My father was disabled since I was in middle school and my mother was the only source of income.”
The difficulties did not dampen his desire to go to college.
“This only put into perspective how fortunate I was to just have the opportunity, even though it wasn’t fully funded,” he said. “I gave value to what I had and vowed to return one day.”
Two years later, he attended Fullerton College and Cypress College, where he received his associate’s degrees, and then transferred to Cal State Fullerton in the fall of 2021.
He had developed his interest in civil engineering when he worked in construction.
“I noticed that the LatinX community was heavily in the labor force, yet there weren’t many in the roles of an engineer,” Sosa Cordova said. “This brought me curiosity as I saw that the Hispanic community clearly knew how to read and implement designs but did not have the degree to ‘qualify’ them to move up the rank.”
Even as a young person, he wanted to build something that would outlive him and to create generational wealth.
“Civil engineering was the major that would help me reach that goal and showcase to future generations what hard work can get you to,” he said.
One scholarship, the Dr. Pinak Chakrabarti Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering, gave him an early boost. Sosa Cordova also found support at the Titan Dreamers Resource Center.
“The center was a symbol of hope for me,” he said. “For the first time, I found a place that gave me a better answer than ‘you can’t.’ It showed me how to navigate my status and utilize resources that I never knew existed. I found a community that has gone through difficulties and continued to persevere, which resonated with me.”
He volunteered at the center and helped develop the mentorship program with the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
“I’ve been able to witness the growth of students as my mentees have been able to find independent jobs and even acquired a scholarship I suggested to them,” he said.
Sosa Cordova’s family, including his parents, his sister and her fiancé, his brother and his family, and maybe even his aunt and uncles, will attend his graduation ceremony.
While celebrating this major achievement, Sosa Cordova has his eye on the future and his next step in developing a career.
“I will be pursuing a master’s degree,” he said, “and then strive to obtain my Practice of Engineering license, which will officially make me a civil engineer in the state of California.”
