Jeovany Tzilin Gomez

Contributing Writer

The Society of Latinx Engineers and Scientists from UC Los Angeles (UCLA) won first place at Copa Del Sol as students from different Latiné STEM organizations came together to play soccer on May 3. Los Ingenieros (LI), a UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) student-led organization, hosted Copa Del Sol, where organizations from different colleges in region two of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) come together to compete to be the best soccer team.

Copa Del Sol took place at Storke Field on Saturday, May 3. A portion of the field was reserved to hold four soccer matches at a time. The event lasted from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., where 14 teams from nine colleges competed to be the best team.

Including UCSB, the universities that were invited were Cal Poly SLO; UCLA; California State University, Northridge; Pasadena City College; Oxnard College; Santa Barbara City College; Loyola Marymount University; and San Diego Mesa College. Professional engineers from Santa Barbara and San Diego participated at the tournament.

Fourth-year physics major Julissa Cesareo, one of the co-chairs of LI, talked about the planning for the event. Cesareo told The Bottom Line, “The purpose of Copa de Sol is for a bunch of engineers or friends [of] engineers to gather together to play soccer, just for the love of the game, play a tournament and just show kind of like a community side of soccer and also just being Hispanic in STEM because we are a minority.”

Cesareo thanked Andrew Yañez, the SHPE Liaison of LI, and Jessy Gonzales, the second co-chair of LI, for their cooperation with the other event organizers of Copa Del Sol.

Cesareo explained the inspiration behind the event: that a soccer tournament is what would make engineering majors take a break from being serious about their academics. Cesareo said nostalgically, “I lived, breathed, and slept soccer when I grew up, and I want to say [that] at least 50 out of over 100 [people] also felt the same way.”

LI faced challenges to organize the event, given the fact that they had a large portion of the field to work with. Cesareo said, “We have to fundraise to book a field, and we had to pay like around $5,000 to get the field. We even pay for [referees] and [they] cancel at the last minute, which is tough, but we made it work.”

Cesareo understands how competitive soccer can be, since it can create tension between opposing teams. She explained, “There’s people that are gonna get aggressive and very intense. So to combat that, you just have to remember…like we’re all family and we all came here for the love of the game, right?”

Since STEM organizations from different campuses came to play soccer, the event also created an opportunity for students and professionals to network for internships and job opportunities.

Cesareo said, “I learned differences about how they teach physics in every other school. The professionals offered me jobs. They’ve told me, ‘Hey, send me your resume and I’ll send it out to every person I know.’”

Cesareo believes that the event could be improved by booking turf fields, securing referees, and encouraging sportsmanship. Regardless of improvements, she stated that the event was a success for what it has accomplished.

Cesareo said, “I had a great time. I met a lot of new people. I really appreciate that a lot of people showed up.” To next year’s Copa Del Sol, she advises “that we remind ourselves that we’re here for one reason and one reason only: to build a family.”

People can check out the websites of LI and SHPE for more information about their programs, services, and accomplishments for the Latiné STEM community.