UVA Veterans Scholar Awarded Google Scholarship, Pursues Engineering

Dylan Pierre Louis, a junior electrical engineering major in the Posse Veterans Program at the University of Virginia, has been recognized with elite honors, including the Student Veterans of America-Google Scholarship. He spent this past summer in an engineering internship at multinational aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman.

While Dylan eventually found confident footing in the UVA community, he reflects on the challenges he confronted in his first year transitioning to campus.

“Coming to UVA was such a big change for me,” Dylan says. “My first year was difficult, but fortunately I had my Posse with me. I definitely wouldn’t be here without them.”

Dylan is a member of the National Society for Black Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Salsa Club. A testament to his committed to helping others, Dylan spearheaded a successful fundraising initiative to help people in Mali receive cataract surgery.

Dylan is the first in his family to go to college, and now calls engineering his passion.

“I’m the kind of person that is always looking for ways to do things better,” he says. “I love the problem solving aspect of engineering, it applies to everything in life.”

“Dylan is the consummate Posse Scholar,” says Posse Veterans Program Director Adam Lessuck. “He is a great engineer who sees his role in the world in a very humanitarian way, based on helping others. That’s what Posse is all about.”