Purdue alum José Armijos (BSCNE ’02) is back where he grew up in Ecuador, living his boyhood dream of being a construction engineer. As president of Constructora Nacional S.A., he now has the reins of the family company he watched his father run, and he oversees the construction of road systems, housing developments and small bridges.

Armijos can’t identify the exact moment when he knew he would follow in his father’s footsteps. He says his professional “pivot point” came when he had interrupted his engineering career in the U.S. to earn his MBA in Spain. “I needed to make a decision on whether I should continue my professional career away from home in the U.S.,” he recalls. “After careful analysis, I made the decision to return to Ecuador and start my career with the family business.”

But Armijos speaks glowingly of PCL Civil Constructors, a company that gave him three internships in Tampa, Florida, while he was a Purdue student, and then hired him after he graduated.

While an intern for PCL, he worked on pre-cast segments for twin 65-foot tall fixed-span bridges; a toll-road project that included four miles of interstate and five new bridges; and an ambitious, complex, $90 million airport interchange project in Fort Lauderdale.

“I am grateful for the opportunity and exposure to such important projects during the internships,” Armijos says. “I believe there is no better way of preparing an engineer other than exposing the student to field experience. Without the internships, the CEM program would not be the same. The experience is the utmost priority.”

Armijos is currently using all of his expertise to lead a project that is uniquely challenging for him and his company. The project holds great promise to benefit all of Ecuador.

His company is working on the Palmira Hydropower Project, a high-impact, clean-energy project in the community of Nanegal in Pichincha Province. When completed, the hydropower facility will deliver nearly 70 gigawatts of clean electricity per year to Ecuador’s grid.

“This project can provide energy each year for 16,000 homes in Ecuador,” Armijos says. “This means that Ecuador can eliminate the need to use conventional fossil fuel power generation. The Palmira Hydropower Project will have an important positive impact on the environment. A global impact will definitely be a result of the implementation of this project.”

Armijos acknowledges that without his Purdue CEM experience, he would not be where he is today.

“I always tell people who ask me: If I would have the opportunity to do everything again in my life, I would not hesitate to get my engineering degree at Purdue University again.”