BYU chemical engineering student Ovidio Gomez Avila stepped onto the now familiar pavement for his final semester. The sunrise-glow over the mountains in Provo reminded him of the rolling horizon back home.
Avila was raised Catholic by his grandmother amidst the mountain terrain of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. He never imagined himself graduating from Brigham Young University decades later.
When Avila met the missionaries and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Guatemala, they told him about BYU.
“I had heard about BYU, but it was just a dream for me then,” Avila said. “I never imagined myself graduating. I don't know if my grandmother could have even imagined something like that — being a BYU graduate, in chemical engineering, in English. It’s a very different story.”
Avila was inspired to get an education and move to North Carolina. Between working in construction and restaurants, and reading The Book of Mormon, Avila taught himself English to enter the BYU Pathway program in 2016.
In school, Avila discovered a love for calculus and a fascination with all kinds of engineering.
Upon completing the BYU Pathway program, Avila applied for BYU and — despite his self-doubt — was accepted. Still, the experience did not start how he imagined.
“The first day of school was a shock for me,” Avila recalled. “Being in the middle of so many people, I wanted to go back. I asked myself, ‘How did I do this to myself?’ But I was here and my grandmother always taught me, ‘Just keep going. If you start something, finish it.’”
Despite his worries, Avila said he soon felt welcomed and made friends with his classmates and professors alike.
“The friends I’ve made here are amazing. I also love all my professors,” Avila said. “They made me feel like I belong and like I could do well in school.”
Not sure at first which kind of engineering he wanted to pursue, Avila expresses gratitude for mentors and advisors who guided him to and through the Chemical Engineering program.
“Even though I can’t tell you the names of my general classes professors, I do remember every one of them and I remember the feeling in their classes. They are all very special to me.”
Working part-time while also dedicating time to classes, Avila met a different kind of mountain while preparing to take the L3 — a notoriously difficult capstone exam which Avila needed to pass to graduate.
While preparing for his third of three available tries, a professor’s kind words calmed his insecurities.
“I tried to keep telling myself, ‘I’m not as dumb as I think,’” Avila remembered. “But before I went in to take the exam, one of my professors told me, ‘no, you are smarter than you think,’ and that’s a different way to face life. It reminded me of the quote by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “Duden de sus dudas antes que dudar de su fe’ — Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.’”
Sitting with the exam in front of him, Avila was grateful that his professors at BYU had taught him to complement his study with prayer.
“I’ve learned that when we take an exam, we pray and ask the Spirit to help us remember the things that we learned,” Avila said. “So when we go to the testing center and we feel that we don't know anything, the Spirit is going to help us to remember. That literally happened to me. I was in the exam and came to a part and thought ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ But as I worked, I remembered little by little.”
Avila was enthusiastic and thankful to pass the exam on his third try.
Reflecting on his life, Avila is surprised at all he has accomplished, but he knows his grandmother would be proud that he finished what he started.
