Mauricio Galindo Vega’s college experience was a balancing act of being a Colorado State University decathlete, a chemical and biological engineering student and holding down a job.

Born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Vega came to CSU to further his athletic endeavors on the CSU Track and Field team as well as to become an engineer like his father.

“I wanted something very different than my hometown,” he said.

On his path to graduation, Vega had his fair share of challenges along the way. Being from Guatemala, he had to adapt to the culture and language, and that was only the beginning. At CSU, his time was split between training for the decathlon, studying for his degree in engineering and working a job.

“It pretty much is week by week,” he said on how he manages all of his responsibilities. “You can’t look too far ahead or you start seeing how much studying you have to do. So it’s just day by day.”

One major challenge for him was his injuries as an athlete, which eventually caused him to get surgery for his shoulder and stopped him from competing for 18 months, but he kept training. This period of training and not competing enabled him to learn the virtue of patience as he waited until he was able to compete again.

“Time management, discipline and being able to communicate with the people who can help me, that has been one of the main issues, but I have gotten better at them,” he said.

Even though he will be graduating from CSU with his bachelor’s degree, Vega said that he is not done with his academic or athletic pursuits. He plans to come back to get an Impact MBA as well as continue to compete for the CSU Track and Field team. He added that he is inspired to make a positive impact in his future work as an engineer.