Lee Faraca - Cal Poly

Wow, time flies. A statement I had heard many times that my younger self often dismissed. However, these past, post graduate years, have flown and every year seems to go by faster. I quite enjoy reading the Annual Report to see all the latest developments on the Island and what interesting stories and experiences my peers have to share. It’s a great indication of all the possibilities MVYouth has provided and the recipients have contrived. Thank you MVYouth!

I’ve been working at Lee + Ro, in Walnut Creek, California for the past two and a half years. I work as a consulting Project Engineer working with various Bay Area as well as LA County public agencies, municipalities, and Cities. My specialty is the treatment and transport of water and sewage, whether that be pumping water to a reservoir and treating it; or rehabilitating and upgrading wastewater treatment processes at a plant. I am slowly learning some instrumentation and controls engineering through a Project Manager, as well as some HVAC design.

Throughout the latter half of COVID I got really into cooking and backpacking. I live for the weekends and love to backpack. There are a couple trips planned for Joshua Tree and Desolation Wilderness this spring. My evenings usually consist of watching Masterchef Australia (or something similar) followed by a meek attempt at cooking gourmet food.

I am still involved in Engineers Without Borders – San Francisco Professional Chapter, especially with the Ethiopian Project team in Weledi. As the Tigray-Ethiopian conflict settles down, we’ll investigate our next project. During the past year we managed to finish post implementation monitoring and quality assurance and close out a latrine and handwashing project built in 2016. My guess is it will likely be a new clinic and some minor flooding mitigation.