At 32 years old, electrical engineering major Julio Gonzalez’s path toward graduation has been years in the making—driven by sheer determination. Photo by Angela Foster.
“Have you ever watched the movie Monsters University?” Julio Gonzalez asked with a laugh. “In the movie, the students all go to Monsters University because they want to work at Monsters Inc., which generates all of the power.
“As students, that’s kind of how we look at it: UTC is like a mini Monsters University and TVA is like Monsters Inc. generating power. We have world-class industry leaders right here locally. You don’t have to go across the world to get that kind of education.”
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For Julio Gonzalez, that comparison isn’t just a clever line. It’s the story of how he found his place.
The northwest Georgia native will cross the McKenzie Arena stage on Saturday, Dec. 13, earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Engineering and Computer Science.
At 32 years old, it’s a walk that has been years in the making—driven by sheer determination.
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The first-generation college student admits the moment feels unreal.
“It means a whole lot,” said Gonzalez, the son of parents who immigrated from a small village in Mexico. His mother and father never had the opportunity to attend school beyond the second grade.
“Just finally making it to this point and knowing all the sacrifices my family’s made—it’s overwhelming,” he said. “It feels like a dream.”
After graduating from Southeast Whitfield High School in Dalton, Georgia, in 2011, Gonzalez went straight into the workforce. At the time, college seemed uncertain and financially out of reach.
“I wanted to go to college after high school,” he explained, “and I had the HOPE Scholarship, but that only covers so much. I was scared to take that leap and take out loans. So I waited and saved up money to go to school.”
That waiting turned into years. He held jobs in telecommunications, insurance and manufacturing before joining a Chattanooga water company. The work paid the bills, but his curiosity never went away.
“I just knew I liked learning how things worked—mechanical, electrical, anything hands-on,” he said.
Along the way, he kept returning to the idea of school. In 2015, he began taking classes at a technical college; in 2019, he enrolled at Chattanooga State Community College, where he continued his studies, taking one or two courses at a time—mostly at night after work.
“Sometimes you had to wait a whole year to take another class because it was only offered in the spring or fall,” he recalled, “but I wanted to make it work.”
Working swing shifts and long days, Gonzalez admitted there were times he nearly gave up.
“I got burnt out,” he said. “There were semesters I could only take one class. There were family gatherings where I’d be in the room studying the whole time, maybe go out to eat and then go back.”
Then, on one icy morning, everything nearly came to an end. On his way to work, Gonzalez was caught in a 40-car pileup that left him with serious back and neck injuries. He spent more than a year and a half in physical therapy.
There were nights he couldn’t sleep because of the pain and days when he questioned whether it was worth it, but he kept going.
“I was still going to school and still trying to work,” he said. “It was very hard. I was on medication, in pain, and I just wanted empathy. I didn’t cause the accident—I was off the road and still got hit. I’m grateful I was able to see another day.
“Whenever I thought about not going to school, I just kept thinking about my parents. They never had this chance at an education. I was doing this for them.”
“Just finally making it to this point and knowing all the sacrifices my family’s made—it’s overwhelming,” Julio Gonzalez said. “It feels like a dream.”
After earning his associate degree from ChattState in 2023, Gonzalez was determined to continue.
“When I graduated from Chattanooga State, that’s when I said, ‘OK, now I’m going to UTC,’” he said. “I wanted to keep challenging myself, and UTC felt like home.”
He started at UTC that fall majoring in electrical engineering, and “professors, advisors and classmates became part of a network that helped me see what was possible,” he said. “UTC became a place that gave me more than an education.”
Gonzalez pointed to faculty members such as Dr. Abdel Karrar, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr. Raga Ahmed, UC Foundation associate professor of electrical engineering, as mentors who changed his trajectory.
“Everyone here took the time to help me understand,” Gonzalez said. “Just the fact that they’d meet with me after hours or explain something one more time made all the difference.”
Ahmed remembered him first as a student in her Signals and Systems class who “really wanted to succeed.”
“He wanted to understand engineering. He wanted to be a good engineer and a good employee,” she said. “What stands out about Julio is that he’s very kind, very gracious and very committed.”
Ahmed said his journey through long work hours and late-night study sessions revealed “perseverance and being strong.”
“The skills, the ethic, the commitment, the time management, the discipline—those are the things he has carried over from his work experiences,” she said. “He’s grateful and he likes that we make him feel like family.
“We wish all students felt that way, but not all of them tell us. That feedback helps us, too.”
Earlier this year, Gonzalez was part of a UTC-TVA team that received international recognition from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for a prize-winning paper presented at the IEEE conference in Austin, Texas.
“That research was phenomenal,” he said. “I was seeing the numbers and calculations, and it made sense, but I didn’t realize how big that really was in the world of engineering until I went to the conference and saw people from all over—Switzerland, Brazil, Michigan, California. It made me appreciate how far I’d come.”
Karrar said he chose Gonzalez for the project after a blind call for senior students and was immediately struck by “his passion for learning and for getting research experience—particularly one that deals with the power industry and working with TVA.”
“When he came and talked to me, I detected that eager look on his face, that enthusiasm, and his readiness to engage immediately,” Karrar said. “He was a great research student to have.”
What impressed Karrar most was Gonzalez’s reliability and positivity.
“He was patient, punctual, always there,” Karrar said. “He talked about the difficulty of scheduling his hours at work, and I told him, ‘Don’t worry about that. Do what you need to do there and come here anytime you want.’ He would come after hours, stay in the lab, do the work, and then send me a report of everything he had done.
“This is the kind of person I would trust if I had a company. He has the passion, interest, focus and work ethic. He will do justice to that work.”
The project opened doors Gonzalez hadn’t imagined. He’s now an electrical engineering intern with TVA’s reliability analysis group, studying outages and system performance to help maintain the regional power grid.
“The grid is like a big machine—it’s always working and always changing,” he said. “We simulate outages, test new equipment and analyze voltage.”
For Gonzalez, that connection between UTC and TVA keeps him inspired.
It also allowed him to work a pop culture reference into his UTC experiences.
“UTC is like a mini Monsters University,” he said. “We’re learning from the best and they’re right here in our own backyard.”
Karrar said seeing Gonzalez’s growth through the research process was just as rewarding as the award itself.
“Sometimes research can be repetitive, exhausting and demanding, but Julio accepted that nature of it,” he said. “He was willing to give extra, to work weekends, to go the extra mile. That’s the kind of person who makes your life easier because he wants to produce good results.”
Julio Gonzalez, left, Dr. Abdel Karrar, Mark Bowman and Andrew Adams stand with their IEEE Prize Paper award at the recent IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting. Photo credit: Kim Casteel Bowman.
Beyond professional goals, Gonzalez’s next chapter includes family. He and his wife are expecting their first child.
“I can’t wait to be that parent who says, ‘Where’s your homework?’” he said, smiling. “My parents couldn’t help me when I was little—they didn’t know what multiplication was. I can’t wait to share that part of life with my daughter. I don’t want to pressure her, but I hope she finds something she loves and pursues it.”
When he talks about his journey, commencement represents much more than a degree. It’s the closing of one long chapter and the start of another he once wasn’t sure he’d ever reach.
He remembers studying during family gatherings, missing birthdays and saving every paycheck to afford tuition.
“Those sacrifices really mean a lot,” he said. “This bachelor’s degree isn’t just for me. It’s for everyone who’s been part of the journey.”
He hopes other nontraditional or first-generation students see his story as proof that progress isn’t always a straight line.
“All of our paths are different,” he said. “If you really want it, don’t be afraid to take your time. Take one class this semester and two next semester. Just keep going. Advisors and professors here will break their backs to help you out. And keep a goal in front of you—something that keeps you moving.”
He added a message for traditional students: “I would say don’t give up on your dreams. Nightmares can quickly turn into a dream.”
For Gonzalez, that outlook defines more than his education—it reflects what UTC has come to mean to him.
“I don’t want to graduate. I mean, I know I have to, but I love UTC,” Gonzalez said. “Everyone here has been so helpful. The professors here have given me so much and I’d love to give back.”
As one of his mentors said, seeing Gonzalez get to this point “fills me with pride.”
“It makes me extra happy that he is crossing that finish line,” Ahmed said. “It makes me extra happy that he’s on the right track to showing that all his hard work is going to pay off. That’s very important for others to see.
“I wish him the best and look forward to hearing a lot of good things about him.”
The end of one journey, Gonzalez said, will mark the beginning of the next.
“I might be back for my master’s before long,” he said. “I want to get my master’s. The bachelor’s degree was for my parents, but I think a master’s would be for myself and my daughter.”
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