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University of Houston senior Fernando Alquicira and junior Gurwinder Singh last month were named the Cullen College’s Outstanding Students for the 2009-10 academic year.

Both Alquicira and Singh were chosen from a pool of 13 students selected from each of the seven programs, and named the outstanding junior and senior for the year. They were honored, along with other outstanding students from the area, at a recognition lunch on the Praireview A&M University campus during National Engineers Week (Feb. 15-21).

Fernando Alquicira

For Alquicira, engineering has served as a stepping-stone that’s helping him follow a dream his mother inspired as a young child.

“My mom used to always be sick and she would faint periodically,” Alquicira explained. “I remember one day she was cooking and I was in the living room. She fainted and the paramedics came. From that time on I wanted to do something that would help her.”

So he became, not only the first person in his family to go to college, but to pursue medical school.

When Alquicira graduates from UH in May with his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he’ll be just months away from beginning studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. His acceptance at UTHSCSA, takes him that much closer to realizing his longtime dream of becoming a doctor. It’s a goal he admits he will work just as hard, likely even harder, to fulfill as his engineering degree.

“It will really be about time management then,” Alquicira said—not that he hasn’t prepared himself well already.

At UH, he has balanced academics with membership in the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists where last year he served as president. This is not to mention, time given to the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers where he participates yearly in their Steel Bridge Competition.

A gifted student who has made the dean’s list every semester, Alquicira tutors others who struggle to grasp physics and organic chemistry. And for the last four years, he’s reached out to students at Jefferson Davis High School through MAES, aiding them in building a fully functional robot to compete with their peers as part of the national program FIRST Robotics.

They are opportunities; he said, he is grateful to have. For him, higher education didn’t come easy and multiple merit-based scholarships afforded him the chance.

To be named the college’s Outstanding Senior, Alquicira said, means a lot.

“It took a lot of hard work to get here,” he said. “It’s really amazing now to be able to see my dedication recognized and to show others that despite how hard it is, it can be done.”

Gurwinder Singh

Singh has had a lot of people tell him he’s attempting the impossible. With both a full time class load and a job that has rotating 12-hour shift work, it’s a comment not without merit.

But it’s one he hasn’t let sway him.

“Most people say it’s not possible for me to complete this with this full-time work schedule,” said Singh, who is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. “I tell them nothing is impossible, but you should have the determination and confidence in yourself.”

They are both attributes he has proven that he possesses.

An India native, Singh moved to Houston with his family five years ago. Ever since, he has had his heart set on pursuing an engineering education, but a university degree was financially out of his reach.

So he signed up for an associates program in petrochemical process technology at College of the Mainland. He graduated with honors a year later and took a job as an operation controller at Lyondell Bassell Industries La Porte chemical plant.

By the next year, he had worked up the mettle to pursue engineering. The only problem—he had to keep his job to pay for it. It’s meant sleepless days and little time for homework and a social life.

“I am on a schedule at work that has me working days one week, then nights the next and then sometimes weekends,” the 24-year-old said. “It has me missing four our five weeks of school and sometimes pulling 60-hour work weeks. There are weeks I don’t get to sleep more than an hour or 15 minutes a day for three or four days. I just have to try my best and concentrate on making it through.”

To keep up, he regularly meets with his professors and gets notes from students in class. Though he admits he studies less than his classmates, it has done little to affect his grades. Singh carries a 4.0 grade point average.

“I’ve been called the miracle student,” he jokes. “I just consider myself blessed. I read something and understand it, which is why I think I am where I am today.”

Somehow, he finds time for Bhangra, a traditional Indian dance he calls his stress reliever. He is even among the founding members of a loose knit group of students on campus in Nach De Punjabi, an organization devoted to this dance from northern India.

Though being named the college-wide Outstanding Junior came as a surprise, Singh said he is honored.

“I have had a dream to be an engineer for a long time,” he said. “This award means a lot to me. I am really thankful to a lot of students and teachers at UH who have been helpful. I can’t do this without help, and it has been much easier with the nice people that surround me.”

Singh aspires to stay with Lyondell Bassell Industries, signing on as an engineer for the company when he graduates in spring 2012.

The following offers a list of all the students selected by each program and considered as the college’s outstanding junior and senior: