Alumna Anamaria Torres Excels After Graduation

Anamaria Torres is a professional engineer with technical experience in private and public sector transportation design and traffic engineering projects in both Illinois and Texas. Torres graduated with her MS in Transportation Systems Analysis and Planning from Northwestern University in 2014, and since then, she has become a rising star in the field of transportation engineering.

In 2021, Torres was recognized by the Texas District of ITE and received the Younger Member of the Year award. She is currently the Immediate Past President of the Capital Area Section of TexITE, recently graduated from the LeadershipITE program, and was recognized by ITE as a Young Leader to Follow in 2022. Currently, she works as the Lead Designer/Senior Transportation Engineer at Stantec.  

 

Why did you choose Northwestern to pursue your master's degree?  

I was looking into which graduate programs to apply to while finishing my senior year at Louisiana Tech and the Director for the Civil Engineering program recommended I apply to Northwestern. I remember saying “I’ll never get in there,” but I applied anyway. I wanted to be in a program that was course-focused, and Northwestern’s program is ranked amongst the best. It seemed so far out of reach that I was in disbelief when I received my acceptance letter. I had also applied for a fellowship through the GEM Consortium, which led to Dr. Bruce Lindvall, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies, reaching out to coordinate a campus visit. When I stepped on campus, I knew Northwestern was where I wanted to spend my graduate school experience. Dr. Lindvall and Professor Schofer supported me for the fellowship, and they made every effort to try to find a company to sponsor me even though Civil Engineering was not a prevalent fellowship discipline at the time. Knowing I had the full support of Northwestern faculty and staff even without me having confirmed my acceptance really solidified my decision to enroll in the program. 

Can you recall a moment from your time at Northwestern that impacted or inspired you?  

One of my favorite professors at Louisiana Tech told me to make sure I worked hard at Northwestern because he knew it would challenge me. And he was so right. In my first quarter, I took a class that made me question how good a student I was. On the first exam, I received the lowest score in the entire class. It was a huge hit to my self-esteem, but I knew I could not quit. I recognized that this class was not going to be easy, but I had to refocus and make every effort to improve. I attended more office hours, read other books to help understand the material, and eventually, finished the class with a B+. It was a lesson in perseverance that I have continued to carry with me. 

What advice would you give to prospective graduate students?  

My advice to prospective graduate students is to expect a challenge. Graduate school will push you, but if you embrace it, you will come out on the other side with a wealth of knowledge and personal understanding. 

How do you feel that the graduate program at Northwestern prepared you for life after your education?  

The biggest skill graduate school at Northwestern taught me was problem-solving. If I could not figure out the solution to a problem, I learned to use every resource available to find it, whether that was my peers, books & references, or past experience. Growing my problem-solving skills has helped prepare me for my daily tasks which are all about finding design solutions for traffic engineering related projects. 

What would you say is the biggest challenge you faced after graduating? How did you overcome it?  

One of the biggest challenges I have faced since graduating from Northwestern is recognizing that I will not always have an answer to a question at the moment. While you can prepare for a meeting or conversation, sometimes there are instances where additional information is needed to make a decision. I used to constantly put pressure on myself to provide an answer to a question even if I was not fully prepared for it, but through discussions with peers, mentors, and supervisors, I realized “Let me look into that and get back to you,” can be an answer. For me, providing myself with additional time to review all materials and information rather than providing a knee-jerk response usually results in a sounder decision that I can feel confident in. 

What is one thing you are passionate about?  

I am passionate about STEM outreach. In college and in my professional career, I have participated in events such as “Future Engineers Day” at Louisiana Tech, “STEM Girl Day” at UT Austin, and various events at local elementary and middle schools through various professional organizations. I was a mentor for the WTS Transportation YOU high school program in both Chicago and Austin and am an active member on the ITE STEM Committee. I am the first person in my family to earn an engineering degree and I try to find opportunities that allow me to give back in the community and help introduce the next generation to engineering.