Raphael Banuelos

Raphael (Rafa) Banuelos calls Pine Top, Arizona home. He is a Mechanical Engineering major with strong interests in sustainability and energy. He is known among AnBryce Scholars as someone who loves to learn about anything and everything. Lately, he is very interested in learning more about faith, and his own faith, specifically. He feels Notre Dame is an excellent place to explore this. Since arriving at Notre Dame, he has visited 10 new states and 2 new continents as part of service or research trips. Extracurricular activities are where he has grown the most and he is most happy to help others learn about these different opportunities. Rafa enjoys helping students transition and find resources on campus through the Latino First Year Retreat.  He also enjoys being President of the Notre Dame Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers because he gets to plan trips to conferences, talks with industry professionals, and help build a community within the engineers. He greatly increased membership, as President, particularly among younger classes. In his free time. he enjoys gardening with his mom and grandma, hiking and biking mountain trails, and watching the CNBC YouTube documentaries describing how the world works. In the far future, he hopes to run a cabana rental establishment on a beach in Mexico. Until then, he is pursuing internships in the energy sector and business. 

Being raised in a family business has inspired much of who I am today.

Activities

• President, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at Notre Dame (SHPE ND)
• Latino Freshman Retreat Leader

Internships/Summer Experiences

• Salt River Project Coronado Generating Station (2 years)
• Engineering Study Abroad (Rome, Galapagos)
• FarmAField Labs, LLC

Post Graduate

• Venture for America