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<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an amazing experience seeing the beautiful school campus and all the curiosity that went with it; this set my initial path to attend FSU.\u201d
\nFreshman Dorm:\u00a0GilchristEngineering Involvement: First-ever\u00a0cohort\u00a0for the Engineering Ambassador Network chapterFavorite Hobby:\u00a0CookingAthletic:\u00a0Plays basketball and rock climbsFuture\u00a0Specialty:\u00a0Wants to explore orthopedic\u00a0surgery\u00a0and cardiology<\/p>\n
Matthew Valdes is a biomedical\u00a0engineering student\u00a0who\u00a0works\u00a0as a\u00a0surgical\u00a0support\u00a0technician\u00a0at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH).\u00a0After volunteering for a year at TMH with the post-op care unit and internal medicine unit, he became inspired to seek\u00a0his current part-time\u00a0role.<\/p>\n
Valdes is involved\u00a0with\u00a0many biomedical engineering clubs and societies. He is a member of the\u00a0Generational Relief in Prosthetics club (GRiPs)<\/a>,\u00a0through which he\u00a0participated\u00a0in Hand Camp, a nonprofit event where kids\u00a0with upper limb differences\u00a0can experience camp life with adaptive solutions for routine and recreational activities.\u00a0There, he\u00a0helped design a customized\u00a03D-printed\u00a0controller\u00a0for a child who wanted to play video\u00a0games on the Nintendo Switch.<\/p>\n As\u00a0an\u00a0engineering ambassador for FSU<\/a>,\u00a0Valdes\u00a0goes to K-12 classrooms\u00a0and community events\u00a0to encourage\u00a0the\u00a0next generation\u00a0to pursue STEM careers.<\/p>\n Valdes balances\u00a0these academic opportunities with his volunteer work\u00a0at\u00a0Big Bend\u00a0Cares Inc., where he\u00a0serves\u00a0as a front-desk receptionist and prepares monthly food bags for community members with HIV.<\/p>\n Why did you choose Florida State University?<\/p>\n I visited\u00a0FSU\u2019s\u00a0campus when I was in middle school because I had siblings that went\u00a0here. It was an amazing experience seeing the beautiful school campus and all the curiosity that went with it; this set my\u00a0initial\u00a0path to attend FSU. I became very motivated to succeed in high school to have the privilege to be a part of\u00a0FSU.\u00a0What\u00a0ultimately finalized\u00a0my\u00a0choice was\u00a0that the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering<\/a> had an amazing student-faculty ratio and included a\u00a0biomedical\u00a0engineering program.\u00a0<\/p>\n What academic achievements have you\u00a0accomplished\u00a0at FSU?<\/p>\n I have been on the FSU and\/or College of Engineering Dean\u2019s list every semester since I began here at FSU. As an engineering ambassador, I have had the amazing opportunity to go to K-12 classrooms and community events. I show students how awesome STEM can be, and I encourage those who think they cannot do it to pursue it and motivate their curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n How do you serve the FSU community?<\/p>\n In school, being a part of the\u00a0GRiPs\u00a0club\u00a0has allowed me to partake in unforgettable experiences. We\u00a0designed\u00a03D-printed custom toys for\u00a0children\u00a0with certain hand deformities,\u00a0for\u00a0a\u00a0child who\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have\u00a0all\u00a0his fingers on one hand and struggled to use the Nintendo Switch remotes. My team and I had the opportunity to give it to him in person at a special weekend event last spring called Hand Camp. It was so amazing to see all the\u00a0children\u00a0our club designed customized toys for and\u00a0watch\u00a0their faces\u00a0light up instantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Outside of school, I volunteered at TMH\u00a0for a year on two different floors of the hospital (post-op\u00a0care\u00a0unit and\u00a0internal\u00a0medicine). I\u00a0assisted\u00a0the\u00a0staff\u00a0by\u00a0answering patient calls from their rooms, giving out\u00a0water\u00a0to patients, cleaning and restocking\u00a0the rooms, and checking in on patients and attending to their non-medical needs.\u00a0This work led me to get a part-time job as a\u00a0surgical\u00a0support\u00a0technician. My work here helping staff members allows for better patient care in the local Tallahassee community.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Name: Matthew ValdesMajor: Biomedical\u00a0EngineeringGraduation: Spring 2026Hometown: Miami,\u00a0Fla.College: FAMU-FSU College of Engineering \u201cIt was an amazing experience seeing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-87494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}