US Navy Vet Inspiring Next Generation of Latino Engineers

*We need more folks like Barry Cordero. How do you reach young Latinos and provide an example for others to do the same? Here’s how. VL

By Angel Canales, ABC News

Former U.S. Navy Nuke Barry Cordero said he knew from an early age that he wanted to help people. Growing up poor in the South Side of Chicago as the descendant of immigrants from both Mexico and Germany, he never heard of engineering as a child. He did know that he wanted to go to college and be a professional one day.

Cordero said he wasn’t a great student in high school. “I was in a lot of honors classes but I didn’t perform really well,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be a doctor one day because I really had a passion for helping people.”

One day he went to his school guidance counselor and asked him for advice about what he should do.

“He really discouraged me from pursing college. He encouraged me to use my mechanical experience to pursue a mechanical education,” Cordero recalled.

Despite the advice, he applied to the University of Illinois and at the same time he went to a Navy recruiter to check out his options.

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