GEIP PreDeparture Introduction Assignment

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GEIPPre-Departure Introduction Assignment

• My name is Jaime Almeida. I am a fifth year
  industrial engineering student at the Georgia
  Institute of Technology. I was born and raised
  in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Guayaquil is the most
  populated city in Ecuador and one of the main
  ports of South America. Since 2005, I have been
  studying at the beautiful city of Atlanta in the
  state of Georgia (USA).
• My first language is Spanish and I know a little
  bit of english and french.
• The first time I left my hometown was in 2004.
  Once I decided what I wanted to study, I set as a
  goal to study at the school ranked number one for
  Industrial Engineering.

• At Bangkok, Thailand

Coming from a third world country I had to figure
out a way to make my goal a reality. For that
reason, I went to a community college in Colts
Neck, NJ aiming to ace my classes to be able to
transfer to Tech. Even going to a community
college was a hard path, especially when not even
my family believed it was possible for me to make
it to Atlanta. While in Ecuador I sold CDs, I
bought and sold garments from China, I taught
english at a local high school, among other
things to be able to pay for tuition in New
Jersey. Spring 2005 was my first semester at
Georgia Tech.
While it seems that I have handcuffs on me,
those were only bracelets I was wearing that day.
I thought It would be interesting to have a
picture with those and the guards outside the
Grand Palace
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• During Summer 2006, I did an industrial
  engineering summer program in Singapore, at the
  National University of Singapore, and I also
  studied in Beijing at Tsinghua University. In
  Fall 2007, I did a semester abroad at the Hong
  Kong University of Science and Technology at the
  former crown colony of Hong Kong. I am currently
  finishing a program at the Universidad
  Politécnica de Valencia in Spain.

• I will be working with Contitech Hycop at
  Motala, Sweden from August until December 2008.
• My job this fall will be to develop decision
  models to optimize Contitech's supply chain from
  customer to vendor. I will also be analyzing
  potential global suppliers to improve their
  sourcing related activities.
• As interesting facts, I can say that I have
  lived in four continents as a result of pursuing
  the means to develop personally and
  professionally. I have been diabetic type one
  since I was two years old and I believe that
  everything can be learned, achieved and
  overcomed when there is a clear objective and a
  strong desire. In my free time I am working on
  developing an online venture that will get me
  into graduate school and that will pay for my PHD.

• At Barcelona, Spain