As an only child, Mark Aquiapao's parents had high hopes for him to attend college when his parents immigrated to the United States. Despite the personal stress and obstacles he faced when his father lost his job and when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Mark has persevered through sheer determination—and his dream of building the next generation of revolutionary technologies.

Today, Mark is a sophomore at California State University, Long Beach, majoring in computer engineering. In his first semester, Mark was involved in the Association for Computing Machinery club, and has since branched out his involvement in other clubs and student government.

After graduation, Mark plans to use his college experiences to enter the computer engineering field and make his own individual mark on the industry.