Andres Manuel Rodriguez

I was born and raised in Miami, FL to Puerto Rican parents. My interest in the maths and sciences, coupled with my passion for building things, led me to enroll at GT in mechanical engineering. Initially, I had a mild interest in going Greek, but after visiting a few of the houses during Rush Week and not feeling connected in any way to the people there, I gave up any desire I had to join a fraternity. This culture shock of moving from a city with a strong Latino presence to a campus without much of one caused me to seek out Latino organizations. After attending meetings for a few of the Latino orgs on campus and generally not feeling accepted by the students running those orgs, I soon lost interest in becoming involved.

Luckily, I met Hermano Michael Boyce around this time, and aside from being very friendly and helpful, he invited me to all sorts of events and activities that helped me become more involved in the GT and Latino community. I did not discover that Michael was an Hermano until much later, nor had I known that Latino fraternities and sororities even existed. It was not until the first road trip with him and Hermano Orlando Carreon to Duke University to attend Rho Chapter's Noche Dorada that I discovered everything that La Unidad Latina had to offer. The professionalism, the academic excellence, the dedication to the Latino community, and of course, the brotherhood. All of these aspects appealed to me and were ultimately what drove me to pledge this great organization and as a result, become a leader on this campus.