One 'big family'

Disasters aren’t what define us. Rather, it’s how we step into action. Meet José Rivera-Perez, whose life changed Sept. 20, 2017, when Hurricane Maria struck his native Puerto Rico.

The doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering recently revealed his journey in the Graduate College’s new video series, One Story, which shares the experiences of UIUC graduate students.

The hardest part?

“There was no communication with the people . . . (with) family,” he said.

“Looking at the images, looking at what was going on in Puerto Rico, it really affected me,” Rivera-Perez added.

He and fellow Puerto Rican students sought comfort in one another.

“You needed to hear someone that experienced that same thing as you,” he added, “so we gathered that group just to sit down, have some coffee or a drink and have some comradery.”

Once Rivera-Perez received word that his family was unharmed, he couldn’t help but Google the crisis, admittedly leaving him “pretty emotional.”

Inspired to act, Rivera-Perez went straight to work helping organize Puerto Rico Crisis.

“(It) brought food and supplies and money to help organizations in Puerto Rico after the hurricane,” Rivera-Perez said. “We got together, we organized ourselves and then we started getting help from the department and my research group.”

The call to action weighed heavily on Rivera-Perez, who couldn’t help but put on his thinking cap after the crisis.

“After the hurricane, you realize the importance even more so of what we do here (at CEE),” he said.

Following the storm, the first thing many Puerto Ricans did was help clear the highways of debris and begin rebuilding bridges.

“If we don’t have roads, if we don’t have highways or bridges that help us to connect to those areas, we’ll (have) major issues. I think the research we do here in transportation engineering helps to achieve that major goal.”

Rivera-Perez chips away at that goal a little every day with his efforts at Illinois Center for Transportation, UIUC’s transportation research lab located in Rantoul, Illinois. Here he’s spent most of his time improving the quality of Illinois’ asphalt.

“We use (asphalt) in our roads here in Illinois so they can withstand cracking (that) happens in the winter,” he said. “We have developed tests to predict cracking potential of asphalt, such as the Illinois Flexibility Index Test.”

Rivera-Perez’s hope for his efforts?

“To try to improve the quality of asphalt so it can lead to long-lasting and safer roads that can save money in the long run for everyone,” he said.

Rivera-Perez aims to take the knowledge he’s learned at UIUC and apply it to a career in the industry post-graduation.

He’d like to focus on consulting and then return to academia and inevitably to Puerto Rico, where he hopes to “use the knowledge from academia (and) the experience as a practicing engineer to teach the next generation of engineers.”

While so much is left unknown about the future, Rivera-Perez is certain of one thing: He couldn’t achieve his dreams without his UIUC family. And that’s the message Rivera-Perez hopes he delivered in the One Story video series.

“Once they (students) come to the university this is not only a place to study, it’s a place where you grow but also a place where you get a new family ― an extended family,” he said. “You are not only applying to the university, but you are applying to a big family that is the University of Illinois family.”