Florida Polytechnic University senior Danya Rubio has certainly made the most of the past four years. After she graduates on May 4, the Auburndale, Florida, native won’t have far to go to start her life as a professional working in the high-tech world.
Rubio will begin her career as an engineer with Sofidel, the nation’s second largest tissue paper distributor located in nearby Haines City, Florida. She’ll be working with the robotic arms that help package, stack and send tissue paper around the country.
Her path to Florida Poly and the experiences she has had would have been hard to imagine just a few short years ago. The oldest of seven children, Rubio is also the first in her family to go to college.
While driving on I4, Rubio noticed the new construction off to the side of the interstate. Past the cleared field and work trucks, she spotted a peculiar looking structure and later learned the building, created by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, would become Florida Poly’s flagship building and main classroom and laboratory facility.
For Rubio, she says it felt too good to be true.
“When I was little, I wasn’t really interested in science,” she said. “In high school, though, I took classes like chemistry and began to love it. When Florida Poly opened right near my house, right as I was ready to go to college, it was like it was meant just for me.”
Rubio joined the inaugural class in 2014 as a mechanical engineering major with a nanotechnology focus.
“It’s the study of really, really little things,” she said, squeezing her thumb and finger together for emphasis. “Like 10-to-the-minus-nine little, but those little things can impact so many aspects of our lives from medicine to machines.”
The ability to go to college near home, and now to work near home, is a blessing according to Rubio.
“My parents are really supportive,” she said. “My little sister is getting her associate’s degree through her high school program, and we talk about where she’ll choose to go to college. It’s nice to be close to home so I can still see them often.”
Editor’s Note: This story is one of a series of stories featuring several of Florida Poly’s CLASS OF 2018 GRADUATES.