Minerva was born in Mexico and raised in Modesto, CA. Her parents were migrant farm workers. She worked in the fields with her 9 siblings helping her parents on the weekends and during school vacations. She is a first-generation college graduate. With no one to guide her, Minerva’s educational path was long and uncertain at times. She attended 4 colleges and changed her major 3 times until finally graduating with a BS in Civil Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona. Her professional trajectory was also long and challenging at Caltrans because of the lack of a mentor.
Minerva has a passion for mentoring. She wants to pass on her knowledge and experience so that her mentees don’t make the same mistake. Her focus is on building relationships and communication. She is most proud of her children’s success. They are an example of how mentoring does work!
Ernie was born and raised in Fresno, CA. His father worked in the roadway construction as a construction foreman for Granite Construction where he retired from. This was where Ernie gained the construction experience by working with his father, developing subdivision and paving local roadways, along with freeway construction. This is what inspired him to be a Civil Engineer, along with not wanting to work in the heat. He was married and had children at a young age, this made it difficult to complete his studies, but his perseverance and determination made that possible to complete his study with a B.S. in Civil Engineer, while being a student assistant at Caltrans. Which at that time started his professional career, he also had a passion to teach and to help people improve and hone in on their gifts. His leadership and mentorship ability has helped several people to improve themselves and their career trajectory and looks forward to helping many more people along his way.
Isidro was born and raised in the Central Valley. Inspired by his father, he gained interest in the Construction Industry as he would spend a lot of time helping and watching his father. Growing up his dream job was to become a construction laborer which later changed to Civil Engineering in High School after conversations with counselors. He then attended and graduated from Fresno State as a first-generation college graduate. Isidro began his professional career at Caltrans as a Student Assistant while attending Fresno State which he then became a Transportation Engineer upon graduating and is now a Senior Transportation Engineer.
Early in Isidro's professional career received mentoring from others and it has been a tremendous support to his career. Now he mentors others in hopes to motivate and inspire students and other professionals to reach their full potential.
