ABOUT

Hi, I'm Silas Garcia-George and I'm a senior at Santa Monica High School participating in the Project Lead the Way engineering program.

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Since a young age, I've been known for my curiosity and desire to learn more about the inner-workings of the world. I vividly remember always asking questions to the adults around me - the basic ones that every child asks, like "why is the sky blue?" - but more notably a constant flow of complex, insightful ones. I was fascinated by the world around me, always striving to understand why things were the way they were. I'd grab on my mom's shirt sleeve and ask questions like "why are cans cylindrical?" or "why are sticky things sticky?" Often left with what I though was a mediocre response, I would begin to research my questions, going to books about infrastructure and industry.

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Looking back on it, I'm sure my never-ending flurry of questions was a tremendous draw of energy for my parents, but I'm lucky enough to have ones who supported this constant curiosity, nourishing it more than suppressing it. 

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On my family's long road trips to and from northern New Mexico, despite the constant battles with my older sister, I would always take advantage of the opportunity to learn from a new environment. I can remember being squished head-to-toe with blankets and soon-to-be Christmas presents in my dad's green Toyota Camry, complaining about my comfort. But more importantly, I remember vividly the big white book that my dad would always shove into the seat-back pocket in front of me, titled "Infrastructure - The Book of Everything for the Industrial Landscape." The 500 page book had in-depth descriptions of everything you could possibly see driving down the highway, from wind turbines and dams to slaughterhouses and timber mills. It was from this book that my wonder and knowledge of engineering and infrastructure came.

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Now, when we drive up highway 395 towards the Sierra Nevada mountains, I see those same places I saw before, but changed both positively and negatively with time. Looking up into the Sierra, the glaciers I saw from the highway when I was young no longer have the same grandeur they once did; the mom-and-pop sandwich shops and burger stands have turned into Subways and McDonalds'; the once barren hillsides at the southern tip of the mountain range are now covered with windmills and solar farms, providing energy for dozens of the surrounding communities.

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