Graduating ISU student turns disasters into stepping stones toward growth

Nothing can stop Amanda Zoe Hernandez Rodriguez, it seems.

She’s survived hurricanes, earthquakes and a pandemic, a relatively eventful life for a 22-year old college student. She's powered through each cataclysm a little more resilient than before. Those challenges taught her the importance of community service, and now, as she finishes her degree from Iowa State University this week, Hernandez Rodriguez has set her sights on returning to her native Puerto Rico and building a bright future in one of the business world’s most critical fields.

“I’ve seen a lot of things at a young age that I shouldn’t have,” Hernandez Rodriguez said. “My mother tells me I lived so much at 16 or 17. That helped me push forward and believe in myself, in a sense, because I want to be somebody and make a change.”

When disasters strike

Hernandez Rodriguez's life forever changed at age 16.

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, washing away entire neighborhoods, crippling the island’s electrical grid and leaving nearly 3,000 people dead in its wake. Hernandez Rodriguez remembers the disaster as a turning point, a period of time that shaped her outlook in the years to come.

Her family home in Caguas was spared by the hurricane, a city near the island’s Central Mountain Range, though the residual effects were daunting. The family was without power for months, though their electricity was restored much sooner many other Puerto Ricans because of her home’s proximity to a hospital. Power wasn’t fully restored to some parts of the island for roughly 11 months after the hurricane arrived.

Hernandez Rodriguez remembers touring the island after the storm, feeling overwhelmed by despair as she surveyed the entire scope of the destruction. The strength and spirit of her neighbors inspired her, igniting the teenager to volunteer with her schoolmates to clean up neighborhoods and help rebuild.

“Puerto Ricans are resilient and happy people,” she said. “We find a way to just live with what we have and make the best of what’s happening. My neighbors went outside and helped clean the streets. Everybody united.”

But disaster struck again before the island could fully recover.

Puerto Rico lies at the boundary of two tectonic plates in the Caribbean, making the region vulnerable to earthquakes. A major quake struck Puerto Rico in January 2020, once again crippling the island’s electrical infrastructure and causing serious damage to some regions. Hernandez Rodriguez, a student at Iowa State at the time, was visiting her home during winter break when the quake struck. She remembers thinking that it felt like a wicked one-two punch with Hurricane Maria still so fresh in her memory.

She decided that wherever her path led, she wanted to give back to Puerto Rico.

“I want to help my island when stuff like this happens,” she said. “I want to give back to my island because I was born there and everything I know is from there.”

Finding her passion during a pandemic

As her high school graduation approached, Hernandez Rodriguez knew attending college in the United States was the next step. She applied to nine schools and learned of Iowa State when one of her high school teachers mentioned their son had become a Cyclone.

Hernandez Rodriguez wanted to study business, but hadn’t yet decided on a specialization. The breadth of courses and majors offered in the Ivy College of Business reassured her that she could find the right program at Iowa State.

So, without ever having visited Ames or the Iowa State campus, she moved north to begin her education journey.

Various growing pains ensued during the first semester, navigating the academic challenges of college in a setting where English is spoken far more commonly than Spanish, her first language. But, Hernandez Rodriguez felt as if she was hitting her stride by the start of her second year in Ames – only for the COVID-19 pandemic to upend her academic plans.

The nationwide outbreak forced Hernandez Rodriguez to return to Puerto Rico during the spring semester of 2020, mere days after her 19 birthday, when all Iowa State coursework shifted to virtual instruction. She expected the the move to last a few weeks, but as the pandemic wore on, she realized she wasn’t getting as much as she'd hoped out of her classes.

“I didn’t want to sit on a computer and watch the screen,” she said. “I tried, but it was still hard.”

She considered quitting school, but the resilience she gained from her fellow Puerto Ricans as they dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the ensuing earthquake provided plenty of fuel to continue. Rather than viewing the pandemic as an obstacle that could derail her education, she decided to view it as an opportunity to grow.

“This is just a stepping stone in the progress of who I’m going to become,” she said. “This is just another step that’s going to take me where I want to go.”

The pandemic disrupted supply chains across the globe, making many previously common goods difficult to find. Suddenly, supply chains and logistics became critical concerns not just for those in the business world but for consumers everywhere. The more Hernandez Rodriguez learned about supply chains, the more convinced she became she’d found her calling.

She enrolled in Iowa State’s supply chain management major, with a finance minor, and that’s the degree she’ll receive at the conclusion at graduation this weekend. She’ll put that experience to use when she works for Collins Aerospace as a global supplier development analyst, working with global suppliers to anticipate and prepare for potential supply chain disruptions.

The 22-year old will be able to work from Puerto Rico, allowing her to stay connected to her home and help with disaster recovery.

“Thanks to COVID, I found my major,” Hernandez Rodriguez said. “All those shortages that were happening, all of that was because of supply chains. I started understanding, and I completely fell in love with the field. Supply chain is everything.”

Leaving Puerto Rico to attend Iowa State University was one of the best decisions she’s ever made, Hernandez Rodriguez said. She credited the support she received from her professors and university staff as a major ingredient for her success.

“I want to inspire other Latinas to come to Iowa State and study business because the opportunities here are amazing,” she said. “The atmosphere, the faculty, they really work with you.”

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: ISU senior turns disasters into stepping stones toward growth