For Immediate Release
May 19, 2011

Chinese Immigrant Excels in Engineering at Cañada College

Siqi Liu is studying computational engineering and want to transfer to U.C. Berkeley or UCLA.

 

Siqi Liu emigrated from China with his mother two years ago, speaking little English but determined to pursue a better life. They both knew that education was the key to success so Siqi enrolled in community college courses.

“I began studying at Cañada College, she is my Alma Mater in America” he said. “I took courses at other colleges but I always felt more comfortable at Cañada, I feel so lucky to be a student of Cañada College.”

Attending Cañada was easy for the Redwood City resident and he became involved in the school’s Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program and Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year schools. “Those programs were very important for me because I met staff and students who helped me in school; I also got a lot of important information from these programs, which are very helpful for me to achieve success.”

Cathy Lipe, the MESA Program coordinator, met Siqi when he became involved in MESA. “Siqi’s enthusiasm is contagious and he excels academically. He is a student who seeks out and gets involved in opportunities and resources that are available to science and engineering majors at Cañada.”

He also met math professor Ray Lapuz. “He is definitely my favorite professor. I have taken several of his Calculus classes, including his honors Calculus class. I really enjoy studying under Professor Lapuz.”

In April, those calculus lessons came in handy when Siqi and other Cañada MESA students participated in the organization’s regional math challenge. Cañada student Soroush Motahari won the challenge while Siqi and fellow Cañada student Ashkan Ahani tied for third place.

“In China, we didn’t have access to good calculators and computers so we had to solve most of the problems by hand,” Siqi said. “Having access to good calculators and computers in Canada College has helped me speed up the time it takes me to solve complex problems and that helped me in the math competition.”

Siqi is a computational engineering major who is looking to transfer to U.C. Berkeley, UCLA or possibly a private school to finish his bachelor’s degree. But before he does that, he is going to South Carolina to participate in National Guard basic training.

“I’ll have two months of physical training and three months of technical training,” he said. “My mother said it’s very important that I give back to the country that has given me so much. Joining the National Guard is a way for me to do that. Recently I saw that the floods ravaged the south part of the United States, and California is a place with frequent earthquakes. As a National Guard member, I am always ready to go wherever they need me. I hope this is a way to serve this country. I will take Cañada’s online courses even when I am at the technical training. I will return to Redwood City in November and continue to attend Cañada.”

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340