bEA-ing True — an EA Story

EA Stories is a series of conversations with current Engineering Ambassadors representing the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. The stories are shared with the hope that they’ll spark inspiration, introspection, or a lesson that otherwise may have gone un-explored.

Author’s Note:

Once realizing that I would be conducting my first EA Story, I immediately knew I wanted to highlight Bea Villaneuva. Since meeting her through EA, I have admired her honesty, graceful determination, and how she is always unapologetically herself. Throughout her story, I related to so many feelings and experiences that she shared, especially about learning to be open to change and to practice gratitude in my day to day life . A huge thank you goes to Bea for being such a genuine and amazing human being. She is truly a breathe of fresh air and I hope that shines through while reading her story.

*This story was written in the fall semester when Bea was interning in Seattle.

Tell me about yourself!

My name is Bea Villanueva. I was born in the Philippines and immigrated to America at 3 years old. I was raised in Florida by two loving parents who continue to inspire me every single day. They’re both incredibly smart, humble, and loving. I’m very blessed to have them.

I’m a fourth-year computer science major with a minor in linguistics. Currently, I’m a Program Manager intern at Microsoft in Seattle and working with the OneNote team. It’s pretty great.

So, you are a Computer Science major with a Linguistics minor. What led you to choose these?

I chose computer science for a myriad of reasons. I actually wasn’t computer science (CS) to begin with though, I was business administration (BA). When I got into UF, I said — oh, I’m a BA. But, something didn’t feel right.

I remember my mother made me take tours to help me decide. We went to UF and took a business tour and an engineering tour (yes, Engineering Ambassadors). The business tour was great, but it didn’t feel like home. The engineering tour however — that changed my life. I remember going in and I was so excited. As the tour went along, the excitement continued to grow.

It really hit me when we made it to the New Engineering Building. If you’ve seen Big Hero 6, there’s this moment in the movie when Hiro (the main character) walks into the main building and he sees all these incredible people working on the COOLEST inventions. That feeling in the movie was pure amazement and wonder. He said “these people are smart and they’re going to change the world”. I felt that feeling when I walked into the NEB. I remember seeing students all around working on hardware and coding and writing down complicated equations — and it just hit me. This is it. In this room are the people that are going to change the world. I want to be a part of it.

As for linguistics, that ties a lot towards my love for storytelling. Storytelling is so important! I remember falling in love with Disney and Pixar and loving the way that these two companies are able to capture universal human emotions. Further than that, my love for storytelling also stems from my belief that at the core of storytelling is communication. Communication is so vital in that it’s how we’re able to express ourselves. I pursued linguistics because I wanted to learn more about communication, how and why we do it, and the thinking behind it. So, despite popular belief, I didn’t pursue linguistics to learn a language. There’s this other side of linguistics where you learn about how and why people communicate. The last class I took was Human Sound & Language, and I kid you not — that class was all about how to make every sound possible by the human mouth. It was amazing.

How does this tie to what I’m doing right now? It does and it doesn’t. I’m currently a Program Manager intern at Microsoft working with the OneNote team. Computer science and linguistics may not directly tie to what I’m doing at Microsoft, but it does in a roundabout way. Computer science has taught me a lot about how to think like an engineer. Engineering is figuring out how to break down a problem and start to find a solution. Whereas, linguistics has helped me a lot with understanding how to communicate with other people and understand the role languages play in how we think. There’s this great TED talk on language if you want to check it out by Petrina Nomikou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgXbq1iTrHo.

Thanks for the TED Talk suggestion!

Now, looking back, what are the biggest changes that you have seen in yourself from where you were versus to where you are now?

I’ve had some big life changes in these past few months. I try to remind myself change is good. I’ve changed in so many ways — emotionally, personally, and professionally.

What are the biggest changes?

Emotionally — I love myself more. Even though that may be a little heavy, it’s the truth. I take the time to be kind to myself and to realize that I’m an iteration. I used to hold myself to these standards of perfection. Recently, I have realized that’s a rough way to live. The truth is that I’m a work in progress. I’m human and change is a thing. Growth necessitates trying new things, messing up a bit, and learning. If I suck at dancing today, then I’ll just work on it and I’ll be just a little bit better tomorrow.

Personally? I’d like to think I’m more spontaneous, though I’m sure that’s still up for debate amongst my friends. But, I try to put myself out there more. I try to not be afraid to meet new people, to say something during a meeting, to be wrong, to dance. I jumped in a lake a couple months ago. It was very freeing — 10/10 would recommend.

Professionally? I’ve worked hard for a long time. I’ve recently decided to trust myself more in the sense that I know I can do whatever I set my mind to. I used to put all this pressure on myself to set my path up for future success. But I had this revelation (something my dad always says) that we work to live, not live to work. So, I’ve decided to relax. I know I’ll get to where I need to be. It’s ok to take my time, smell the roses, and enjoy where I’m at. I think there’s a really delicate balance between striving for success and enjoying the successes you’ve had.

I recently had this meeting with my boss’s boss [at Microsoft] and I asked him how he’s so confident. His answer? Gratitude. My mind exploded. He explained that confidence is often lost because people forget to be grateful for where they’ve been. Humans have this innate need to be better and they lose sight of where they started. I definitely have. I forget all the work I put in in high school and the work I’ve put into my first couple years of college. I forget that in my second summer semester in college, I was miserable because I didn’t have an internship and it felt like everyone else did. I realized during that meeting that I haven’t been grateful enough to the battles I’ve been able to fight and the goals I’ve already achieved. I’ve decided to enjoy where I am right now. Don’t get me wrong, I still work hard, but not so hard to where I forget to enjoy and be grateful for where I am.

And lastly, what advice would you give to your freshman self?

Live in the moment. Make more risky decisions. You’ll end up where you need to be and where you’re meant to be. Most importantly though, dance more. I feel like I’ve wasted years because I’ve been so afraid to just dance. I was always worrying about how I looked. Now I’ve realized life is SO short. Dance, Bea!

Lastly, trust yourself. I forget to trust myself sometimes and I lean a littttle too much on the people in my life. I sometimes forget to give myself credit. I sometimes forget to see my worth, and I think that’s a hard lesson to learn. So, trust yourself. In every aspect.

Thank you for reading our fourth EA story! EA Stories are created to record and publish the personal stories of the Gator Engineer, so that other students might find a spark of inspiration, introspection, or a lesson that otherwise may have gone unexplored.

This series is ever evolving, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated: claps, comments, criticism; all of it is greatly appreciated!