Ariana Bermudez

“I do not like engineering,” Ariana Bermudez said as a teenager. “I will not be an engineer.”

After learning about engineering in middle school, Bermudez was initially intimidated and uncomfortable.

In the ninth grade, Bermudez’s teacher chose her as part of her school’s team for the 2017 Chevron Design Challenge, where they placed fifth out of 15. She realized her passion for the field, later pursuing a mechanical engineering degree in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University

As an ASU undergraduate student, Bermudez explored an array of opportunities.

She took part in the Grand Challenges Scholars Program, or GCSP, where participants seek to develop solutions to society’s most pressing challenges. Grand Challenges Scholars aim to tackle one of the 14 Grand Challenges of Engineering, as identified by the National Academy of Engineering, while focusing on one of five themes. Bermudez chose the joy of living theme, in which she explored ways to improve the world through a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on environmental and health-related projects.

Outside of GCSP, Bermudez held internships at Rivulis, HP and John Deere. She also helped her fellow ASU students as a grader for FSE 150 Perspectives on Grand Challenges for Engineering.

Bermudez also gained leadership skills through work in ASU’s chapter of Engineering Projects in Community Service, or EPICS. She led a feasibility analysis to convert a 1980s-era SUV into an electric vehicle, creating a kit for others to convert gasoline-powered vehicles. The team successfully pitched their idea at a competition to receive funding for the project.

Part of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program focuses on multicultural competency, which Bermudez embraced wholeheartedly.  

She explored her Hispanic heritage as a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers ASU chapter, or SHPE de ASU, and completed a second major in Spanish literature and culture. For one semester, Bermudez even fully immersed herself in her Spanish major by studying at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in Spain.

After graduating in fall 2024, Bermudez is returning to celebrate her graduation at the spring 2025 Fulton Schools Undergraduate Convocation. Since graduating, she moved to New York City and began working as a fire protection engineer.

“A lot has changed since I was a conflicted teenager,” Bermudez says. “Engineering was my passion before I knew it; I just needed my high school teacher to see this passion in me before I did. I aspire to do the same for others.”

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ spring 2025 class here.