Continuously Reinventing Yourself | Rae Jillian Rivera | TEDxCSULB

It can take one decision in choosing yourself and your happiness to make it seem like your life and perception of things shatters before your eyes. As an engineer, I am suppose to “fix things”. However it takes being fearless, persistent, and practicing growth mind-set to break down any challenge I face and re-building it into something incredible and self-sustaining. I will discuss how I navigated my unknown using tools I use in my career through an iterative process where I continuously challenge myself, learn from failure, and began reinventing myself through creative problem solving to improve myself and living the life I want for me. Rae Jillian Rivera was born from immigrant parents and is a first-generation college student. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach with her Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering Technology in 2019. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Computer Science with a specialization in Computational Perception and Robotics at Georgia Institute of Technology. She works as a Software Developer for Walt Disney Imagineering and was part of the team that brought the attractions at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as well as the interactive technology for the new Spider-Man WEB-SLINGERS attraction at Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure and more recently Disneyland Paris.

Rae has a passion for outreach and was crowned Miss Long Beach 2020 where she educated, mentored, and encouraged underrepresented communities to pursue careers in STEM. Rae practices growth- mindset, persistence, and by learning new ways to continuously reinvent herself. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx