Most of Sean Cabrera\u2019s counterparts are thinking about attending orientation sessions for college admission this fall.<\/p>\n
But Cabrera, 19, of Fountain, will don cap and gown Friday as the youngest graduate of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, joining the largest graduating class in the university\u2019s history for 9:30 a.m. ceremonies at the World Arena.<\/p>\n
Approximately 1,700 December and May graduates are eligible to attend annual commencement exercises. More than 1,000 are expected to participate with friends and family filling the World Arena.<\/p>\n
Cabrera will earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering and a place in the record books as the youngest graduate, not only of the class of 2007 but in the history of the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally?\u201d the soft-spoken, slight, man replied when told of his status. \u201cI never thought of this as that big of a deal. I\u2019m lucky to have been given an aptitude and to have a supportive family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cabrera graduated from Fountain Middle School and enrolled at Pikes Peak Community College at 13, foregoing high school. After meeting with Jeremy Haefner, dean, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences in early 2001, the then-15-year-old decided to give university life a try.<\/p>\n
A self-proclaimed \u201cmath whiz,\u201d Cabrera excelled in his engineering courses, earning places on the dean\u2019s honor roll and a National Science Foundation scholarship. He has also served as a peer mentor and tutor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year was hard \u2013 real hard,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cBut, as time went on, things got easier. I was really shy at first. But in addition to preparing me with the skills I needed to get a job, the university has really helped me with my social skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
The youngest of three children, Cabrera credits his father, Daniel, a retired electrical engineer, his mother, Estela, and sisters Jennifer Rupisan and Lanny Cabrera for encouraging him and demonstrating the importance of education. Jennifer graduated from the University of Colorado at Denver and Lanny graduated from UCCS. Estela recently began studies at PPCC.<\/p>\n
The next stop for Cabrera? This fall, he\u2019ll begin work as a design engineer for Simtek, a Colorado Springs-based, semiconductor manufacturer, and begin part-time graduate studies in engineering at UCCS.<\/p>\n
UCCS, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in northeast Colorado Springs, is the fastest growing university in Colorado and one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The university offers 29 bachelor\u2019s degrees, 18 master\u2019s and four doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls about 7,600 students annually. For more information, visit http:\/\/www.uccs.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of Sean Cabrera\u2019s counterparts are thinking about attending orientation sessions for college admission this fall. But Cabrera, 19, of Fountain, will don cap and gown Friday as the youngest graduate of the University of (Full Press Release)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pressreleases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}