‘Welcome to the land of dreams.’ How three Miami Dade College students made it to MIT

Ana Camba Gomes, Fabiana González Zambrano and Romina Cano Velasquez would spend 14 hours a day going to class, labs and studying together, often dissecting linear algebra problems in the early-morning hours. They woke up at 5 in the morning to get to campus by 5:40, scrambling to review notes before physics class began at 6.

The three classmates — one a mechanical engineering major, and the other two majoring in computer engineering — took twice as many credits as the average Miami Dade College student. They wrestled with a fifth-dimensional object in linear algebra, with Velasquez protesting: “Humans can only see three dimensions!”

The arduous workload paid off for the three, two of whom are from Venezuela and one who is from Peru. They all arrived in South Florida less than five years ago and graduated with highest honors and distinction in May from the dual language program at the Honors College at Miami Dade College.

MIT’s tough acceptance rate

This week, they arrived in Cambridge, Mass., where they will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked the No. 2 university in the country, tied with Harvard University, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 rankings. (Princeton is No. 1.)

The students are among 21 students worldwide who will be transferring this fall to MIT, whose acceptance rate is just over 4 percent, and transfer admission is even more competitive than first-year admissions.

It is not unusual for one or two students from the Honors College to get accepted to MIT. But for three students who studied together to be accepted is a rare feat.

“We were so lucky that we got in together at MIT,” said Gomes.

“These three girls came in hungry; they were ready to go,” said Magda Castineyra, the director of the Honors College Dual-Language Program at the Eduardo J. Padrón Campus in Little Havana.

Came from Venezuela

At the Honors College, students take classes in both English and Spanish, a rare model within higher education, and one which encourages Spanish-speaking students to pursue their education further. At MIT, their classes will be in English.

Gomes, 20, and Zambrano, 20, came to the United States from Venezuela when they were 16. Both had parents who had good jobs in Venezuela: Gomes’ parents were engineers; Zambrano’s parents owned their own business. But their parents wanted their children to get a better education.

Both Zambrano and Gomes attended some high school in Miami, Gomes at Ronald W. Reagan Doral Senior High, and Zambrano at Doral Academy Preparatory School. The two were introduced by text while at MDC because they both studied computer engineering and were from Venezuela. They became immediate friends.

The students attended the Honors College because they knew it would provide them with the academic course load and mentorship needed to get into a top university.

Castineyra explained that in the dual-language Honors College, nearly all of the students are from Latin American countries. They are bright and hardworking but don’t always know how to navigate the U.S. educational system.

Peruvian roots

Velasquez, 24, came to Miami from Peru right before she started classes at the Honors College. Her grandmother, who was already in the United States, had petitioned for green cards for Velasquez’s parents and two sisters. When they got them, her family decided to leave everything behind in Peru and come to the United States. (Velasquez now has a green card.)

She said the idea that underlies her family is to take advantage of every opportunity available and go as far as possible.

Last summer, she interned with NASA’s Student Airborne Science Activation (SaSa) program based out of Baltimore, Md. At MIT, she wants to focus on aerospace engineering with the plan to one day go to space — a dream she has kept close to her heart since her grandfather gave her a telescope when she was a child. A framed photo of the solar system with all the mission satellites from different countries hangs next to her bed in Miami.

‘Welcome to the land of dreams’

Gomes is the workhorse of the group, while Zambrano’s easygoing personality provides relief to her friend’s unrelenting work ethic. Velasquez is a healthy mix of the two girls’ personalities.

Gomes, Zambrano and Velasquez did not expect to all get accepted into MIT. In fact, they were nervous about sharing their acceptance in their group chat at first, because they didn’t want to make the other feel bad. Velasquez hadn’t even told her friends she applied because she didn’t know whether she would get in.

“Welcome to the land of dreams,” said Velasquez, just a few days before getting on a plane and heading off to MIT.

Gomes and Zambrano plan to major in electrical engineering and computer science, two fields dominated by men. In the 2018-2019 school year, only 19 percent of computer science bachelor degrees nationwide were awarded to female students, according to the Herald’s calculation of data from the National Center for Education Statistics. For electrical engineering, just over 14 percent of degrees nationwide were awarded to female students during this period, according to the center’s statistics.

Velasquez plans to major in mechanical engineering. All three are entering MIT as sophomores.

“I am very proud of her force and dedication,” said Gomes’ father, Nemecio, in Spanish. Her mother Ana is proud too, but her heart is divided, as she’s sad to see her daughter move away from home.

Gomes was also awarded the $55,000-a-year Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship, a scholarship awarded to high-performing transfer students. Both Gomes’ parents were engineers in Venezuela. Now, her mom is a warehouse supervisor and her father works for a company that distributes industrial equipment.

Future plans

When she graduates, Gomes wants to create assistive technology for people with disabilities. When she was working at a fast-food restaurant, a customer came in who was deaf. Observing the customer, she realized there should be more technology to help people living with disabilities.

Zambrano wants to work for the U.S. State Department of Technological Innovation and bring technologies back to Venezuela and other Latin American countries. Velasquez has her eye on aerospace.

On a recent Friday at Miami Dade College’s Doral campus, there was an ice cream social for high school students. The three were wearing their MIT hoodies when two students came up to the table and asked if they went to MIT. They explained how they are transferring there from the Honors College.

“You must have to be super smart,” said Azim Jafer, 17, a student at the School for Advanced Studies, a Miami-Dade public school where students take both high school and college classes.

Zambrano corrected him: “You don’t have to be smart; you have to put the work in.”

“You guys are like role models,” said Jafer. “That’s the American dream — to go to MIT,” he said, shyly. “That’s crazy!”

An earlier version of this article had an incorrect number for the number of transfer students that MIT accepted for the 2022-2023 school year. It has been updated to reflect that 21 transfer students were accepted.