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Francisco Castillo (B.S.'95 M.S.'97 CEE)

In his Oakland office, Francisco Castillo (B.S.'95 M.S.'97 CEE) talks passionately - and voluminously - about three things. One is family: his wife, Sonia Rocha Castillo (B.S.'02 IEOR, whom he met on campus), his parents, and nieces and nephews. The second is the 49ers, which Castillo insists will make a comeback this year. The third is work. "I do engineering because it's as fun as the first day I was in class," he says. "I don't take it too seriously."

Actually, Castillo takes his contributions to the designs of prominent Bay Area buildings quite seriously. As serious, say, as translating for his Spanish-speaking mother during her cancer operation when he was 14 or getting a degree from Berkeley Engineering against the odds. "I always take pride in the fact that you can open doors if you struggle and work really hard," he explains.

In 1986, Castillo's family emigrated from Nicaragua , settling in the Bay Area. His mother worked as a nurse's aide in people's homes making minimum wage; his father worked for a company that prepared airline meals. Castillo went to the inner-city Mission High School . While he struggled to learn English and adapt to a new culture, he cruised through math and science. Extra-curricular programs like the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) and Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) challenged him and gave him his first exposure to engineering. He even came to Berkeley as a high school student, taking extra classes in math and science through the EAOP program.

Back in Nicaragua , Castillo's grandfather, a civil engineer himself, predicted that his grandson would go to Berkeley and become a civil engineer. "I didn't want to go anywhere but Berkeley," Castillo remembers.

Castillo applied to the CEE department and was accepted in 1991. He worked incredibly hard, teaching himself the math and science he didn't get in high school as well as staying on top of his regular coursework. The most difficult thing, he says, was the economic challenge. "I couldn't afford a computer so I did everything by hand," he says.

Being an underrepresented minority in the College is a matter of overcoming real barriers as well as barriers you create in your own mind, he explains. He became involved with the Charles Tunstall Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) and the Hispanic Engineering Society (HES), he says, making friends who were like him. By finding people he was comfortable with and by working hard, he succeeded. When he looks back on it now, Berkeley Engineering "was a real home to me. It helped me realize all my dreams."

Castillo left the College in 1997 with just his master's degree so he could get a job and help his parents financially. The highlight of his first job at Structural Design Engineers (SDE) was to help in the construction administration of the $186 million Moscone West Convention Center in 2002. According to the San Francisco Business Times, the building went on to help stimulate the sluggish San Francisco convention and hotel industry still recovering from the dot.com bust. Castillo holds up the article. "I'm proud we had an impact on the city."

While at SDE, he also worked on an Oakland building now used by the District Attorney's Office, the design of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Community Center in San Francisco, and the new dorms for the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Castillo now works at OLMM Consulting Engineers in Oakland. He's grateful that engineering not only provides him and his family with a good living, but also keeps him passionate. "That's the thing about engineering. You never stop learning," he says.

Castillo's life has come full circle. He now passes his enthusiasm for engineering on to local high school students, where he introduces them to engineering. He also volunteers with MEP and advises current student engineers.

"If someone gives you a hand, you have to return the favor," he says.

"Professor Wilbur Somerton and the Birth of the California Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program to help educationally disadvantaged students excel in math, science and engineering" by David Pescovitz (Lab Notes, December 2002)

OLMM Consulting Engineers

Lab Notes is published online by the Marketing and Communications Office of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The Lab Notes mission is to illuminate groundbreaking research underway today at the College of Engineering that will dramatically change our lives tomorrow.

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