LMS Team- Jesse Llanos
Jesse Llanos recently joined Larsen Motorsports as an intern. He is originally from Trinidad and is majoring on Mechanical Engineering as a Junior at Florida Tech. He states that he chose Florida Tech because he’s heard of the school before and he had couple friends back home that went to Florida Tech that full heartedly recommended the school. Before coming here, Jesse wanted to major in Aerospace Engineering, because he loves jet engines (because who doesn’t?!), but decided Mechanical Engineering was a better fit.
Jesse is currently taking steps towards his career goals he had ever since he was a little kid. His dream job as a child was to work at Boeing building commercial airplanes. He says the complexity, risks, and the requirements to build a commercial airplane amazes him even though he finds fighter planes fascinating too. He says his dream job has not changed much over the years and that he would still love to work at Boeing. However, his focus has shifted on powertrains and he also thinks working for Rolls Royce or Formula 1 could be something he might pursue in the near future.
He is planning on reaching his goals by keeping up with the hard work. His plan is to gain as much as experience at Larsen Motorsports and get good grades to reach his goals. He aims to be a well round individual because he believes it brings quality into a person’s life and wants to be the best possible version of himself.
Of course he did not get here solely by himself. He says his uncle Jerry and his dad have been great influences on him ever since he was young. As he was talking about the people who influenced him in his life the change in his voice showed how dearly he cared about them. Uncle Jerry, a Bio-Medical Engineer who works for Johnson&Johnson, is the one who introduced Jesse to the world of engineering. On the other hand his dad was the one who taught him the most. He explains how he was such an inquisitive child and no matter how silly the questions might have been his dad would always try his best to answer them, even if he did not have much knowledge on the subject.
As new of an intern Jesse is, he has a positive outcome from his time at Larsen. He says that he has been interested in Larsen ever since he came to Florida Tech. Some of the previous and current interns such as Paige, Chelsea, and Samir always gave amazing feedback on Larsen and encouraged him to join. With a confident look he says that interning at Larsen has been challenging so far, but in the best way possible. He truly enjoys working here and being around jet engines all the time. He also adds that he likes all of his coworkers. “Everyone has their own personality, they are all prominent. It is uniqueness. Because you can go in to a place and end up getting this wash and dried personality that everyone follows. So far I have not seen that in Larsen and it is great.” Besides hearing impressive things about Larsen he also chose to apply for the position because again, jet engines. It is a very hands-on place and having previous mechanic experience from back home he wanted to continue working in a similar area. He is planning on having as much as experience and positive end gain at the end of his time at Larsen. He wants to use his experience at Larsen as a step to developing himself as an individual. His project at Larsen is something he has never done before, and he is thrilled about how new and challenging it is to him. He is currently working on restoring molds for funny cars with another Larsen intern; Nicolas. Even though he is a hands-on person and has prior experience as a mechanic he says he has never done any work with fiberglass before.
As an engineering student he does not have much free time in his hands, but when he does he likes to pursue anything that picks his interest. He enthusiastically talks about his do-it-yourself project over the summer where he built an RC plane from scratch. He completed the calculations and flew the plane too, however he laughingly adds that the he was not that good at flying it and the plane crashed. Another thing he invests his time in beside classes and his internship is going to the gym. He loves working out and he is there almost every day pushing himself to work harder. He says the gym is a part of him bettering himself in every possible way. All of his passion for learning and bettering himself comes from his favorite quote; “Try to learn something new everyday that you did not know the day before”.
Besides the influence his family had on him he also has an idol that affected him; Michael Faraday. Even though Faraday dropped out of school as a kid he still contributed so much in to science and education Jesse believes that his legacy should be kept alive. He respects what Faraday added to science and his passion for it.
Going back to learning something new everyday, Jesse tells how compelling he finds reading textbooks. One of the perks of constantly learning is that a person can grow to enjoy reading textbooks. Jesse has this belief and states that more often than not he finds textbooks more interesting because they are based on facts and they share real information. He is not one to read books to go to a dreamland and escape his reality, but he also appreciates that side of literature especially since his favorite books were the Chronicles of Narnia.
If he was not at Florida Tech or interning at Larsen Jesse would rather be working on engines as an aircraft technician. He would love to do all the hands on work they get to do.
