Alumni

Jiovanni Rosario

Electronics & Computer Engineering Technology

As a child, he spent countless hours playing video games on an old-school desktop. One day his computer needed to be fixed. A technician took it apart and revealed the electronics that powered his favorite games. That's when Jiovanni became determined to learn more. He learned a lot more–via the electronics program at his high school and at Penn College. Today he's engaged in a career he loves as a Controls Project Engineer for Amazon Web Services.

Q&A with Jiovanni

WHY DO YOU THINK AWS HIRED YOU?

At Amazon, “learn and be curious” is one of our leadership principles. I think they hired me because my experience shows that I enjoy diving into new technologies and I’m not afraid to ask questions, thanks to Penn College.

WHAT ARE YOUR DUTIES?

I’m part of the Controls Global Projects team at AWS and manage projects that improve availability, reliability, and efficiency of our data centers. I start my workday by checking my instant messages and calls/texts to see if anything urgent has come up. Then I head out to visit project sites to check on progress, learn what the roadblocks are, help solve problems, and build relationships with the team.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF YOUR JOB?

I enjoy the challenge and autonomy. My manager empowers me to make decisions, learn and experiment. I am also supported when I want to exercise a skill set outside of my current job description to work on projects that improve processes.

WHY DID YOU SELECT PENN COLLEGE?

During my campus tour, I felt the size of the college was approachable and welcoming. I knew the smaller classrooms would allow me to get to know my professors. And I met a Puerto Rican student studying robotics who made me feel represented. Penn College created an environment where every semester was a chance to get hands-on with new technology, solve problems, and build interesting projects.

WHAT WAS THE MOST VALUABLE LESSON YOU LEARNED AT PENN COLLEGE?

Penn College taught me how to be resourceful and enjoy learning. I got frustrated with the professors plenty of times because they wouldn’t help me the first time I asked for support. However, with a career that spans many roles, I now realize that they taught me how to be resourceful. I learned to dive into the documentation and specs, make a few attempts and then present the situation if I still couldn’t solve the problem.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR POSITION WITH AWS?

When family and friends tell me that they use AWS services to support their application. It’s rewarding to know the work I do helps and impacts others.