Scholarship Winner
Miles Jennings
2024 FASAE SoCal Education Foundation Alimento-Niere Scholarship recipient.
Miles Jennings is a Computer Engineering student at the University of California, Irvine, specializing in hardware. Raised in Long Beach, California, by his single mother, grandmother, and uncles, Miles spent part of his childhood living with family in the Philippines while his mother completed her education. This upbringing, combined with a lifelong background in competitive sports like basketball, instilled in him a strong sense of discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. Driven by his mother's personal sacrifices, Miles maintains a strong focus on academic success and aims to use his technical education to positively impact his community.
On campus, Miles applies his engineering skills to practical design projects and technical organizations. He is an active member of the ESW Beach Cleanup Rover team, where he collaborates on circuit design, component research, and development using Altium and GitHub. His project experience includes building a remote-controlled mini rover for obstacle courses, programming a digital fitness tracker, and codesigning a C-based chess application with a custom graphical user interface. Alongside his studies, Miles works as a Competitive Sports Supervisor for UCI Campus Recreation, where he trains new sports officials, manages high-pressure game decisions, and ensures consistent officiating standards.
Beyond his technical pursuits, Miles is heavily involved in cultural and community engagement. He is an active member of FUSION, a STEM-focused Filipino club at UCI that helped him find a sense of belonging and deepen his connection to his heritage. Miles uses his experiences to give back to his former community, recently returning to his alma mater, Artesia High School, for a Pioneer Spotlight event to mentor students on navigating the transition to college life. Whether encouraging young people to explore STEM fields or advising peers at the campus recreation center to join cultural clubs, Miles constantly works to guide others toward supportive networks. His history of service also includes volunteering at youth basketball camps, organizing charity fundraisers with Key Club, and distributing food to unhoused individuals on Skid Row.
Miles plans to secure a full-time hardware engineering position after graduation to establish a stable career and support his family. He aims to honor his family's sacrifices by building a reliable career that successfully bridges his passion for advanced technology with meaningful community service.