Choosing NC State

Blas P. Arroyo describes how he decided to study pulp and paper science at NC State.

Interview on 2012-09-20 00:00:00 -0400

Transcript

00:00:00.000 Well one of the reasons I mentioned the paper mill is that

00:00:02.942 my undergraduate major here was in pulp and paper,

00:00:07.384 the science and technology of pulp and paper chemistry,

00:00:09.797 and that program had a very nice scholarship associated with it,

00:00:17.941 so by virtue of my having the experience with a paper company in my hometown

00:00:23.747 I had maybe a little different impression or opinion of the paper industry in a lot of respects

00:00:27.866 so it was easier to recruit someone like me who already knew about the industry.

00:00:32.757 I had a good friend who was a year ahead of me

00:00:35.783 who had gone through that program-who was in the program,

00:00:39.643 at the time that I came here and then another gentleman that I knew

00:00:44.424 that was older that had gone through the program,

00:00:47.205 so I knew good things about it and I had heard good things about NC State

00:00:51.386 and that interested me.

00:00:54.203 Otherwise the alternatives would have been to probably go to the University of Florida

00:00:58.163 and major in something like political science or something like that,

00:01:01.320 is what I was thinking about, but I was intrigued with the prospect of being able to go out of state

00:01:05.806 and to try something more in the science area,

00:01:10.699 so it was something that appealed to me as something to try,

00:01:14.828 and I was actually able to graduate, [Laughs]

00:01:19.962 despite some challenges in between.