RICHMOND, Va. –
As a first-generation American and the first in her family to attend college, Spc. Mariel Gomez has broken new ground with every step she’s taken. She was born in California, to newly-immigrated parents, and spent a few impactful years with her grandparents in El Salvador before moving with her family to Virginia where she routinely served as a translator and helped her family bridge the gap between their Salvadoran heritage and their new American life. Today, she holds an undergraduate degree in sustainable biomaterials from Virginia Tech and is completing a master's program in chemical engineering at North Carolina State University. Additionally, one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, she serves in the Virginia Army National Guard’s Powhatan-based 180th Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 329th Regional Support Group as a 12K, a plumber.
Gomez’s curiosity about the National Guard was piqued when a friend, a fellow Latina member of Virginia Tech’s Latin Link, a LatinX social club, gave her a ride one day. When Gomez started college, her father told her he’d be willing to pay her expenses. While she appreciated his generosity and the offer, she knew he had other financial obligations and didn’t want him taking on hers as well. Gomez knew her friend was paying her way at college and broached the subject that day in the car.
“She stated, ‘Oh, I’m in the National Guard,’” Gomez said. She was surprised by the response, especially from a friend she described as “cute and short.” The image Gomez had of a person in the military didn’t fit the image of the young girl beside her. She started doing some research to learn more about the National Guard and met more people, many of them also Hispanic, who were using their National Guard service to fund their college aspirations.
“The friends of hers that were also doing the National Guard were thriving in school while doing this once-a-month thing,” Gomez said. If they could do it, she could do it too, so she talked to a recruiter.
“I very quickly decided that the investment was worth it,” she said. “It was also around the time that I kind of hit a wall and I wanted to challenge myself and prove to myself that I could do more than I probably thought I could.”
The decision to enlist as a plumber wasn’t based on any real desire to learn about plumbing but was mostly a logistical consideration. Gomez, a full-time student, didn’t want to miss more than a semester of school and she wanted to complete training as soon as possible so she could start using the education benefits that would come with her military service. Her recruiter told her that, after Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training for a 12K was just seven weeks. Plus, she’d qualify for a bonus. Figuring plumbing was a pretty solid life skill to take with her as she embarked into adulthood, Gomez raised her right hand and swore to support and defend her nation and state and, after just two short months in the Recruit Sustainment Program, she headed to training in August 2019, returning just in time to start a new semester.
When Gomez started at Virginia Tech, she wasn’t sure what to major in. In her first semester, she took a handful of intro classes that, she said, didn’t go with each other, but did help her narrow her focus.
“I took data analytics and health and nutrition classes, just kind of seeing which ones stuck. I really liked Earth Resources the most out of those random classes,” she said, explaining that, around the same time, she’d also attended a chat highlighting the offerings from the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech. She’d always been fascinated by the topic of sustainability, so majoring in sustainable biomaterials felt like the perfect fit. She declared her major, and, as an undergraduate, researched alongside PhD candidates working on the polymerization of new drug delivery systems. Toward the end of her undergraduate experience, she started thinking about the next step, about earning a graduate degree. She first considered staying at Virginia Tech but felt she needed to stretch her wings a bit. The summer before she graduated, she went on an undergraduate research experience with North Carolina State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She worked with a professor whose specialty was halfway in materials science and halfway in forest biomaterials which was, Gomez said, “right up my alley.” During a conversation with a visiting professor, Gomez discussed her interests and he suggested she study chemical engineering. At first, she balked, then realized he was right.
“I started applying to different chemical engineering departments, but honestly, I’ve always been very close with my parents, and I didn’t want to go too far from them,” Gomez said. NC State was, after her research experience there, familiar, and wouldn’t add additional miles to her commute to drill with her unit. In December 2022, she graduated with honors and was named 2022’s Outstanding Senior for the College of Natural Resources and Environment.
Along her higher education journey, Gomez took advantage of the benefits available to her through her service in the Virginia Army National Guard.
“I was using state tuition assistance and the G.I. Bill,” she said. “There were semesters where I just paid it all off with that, and I was very grateful for that.”
With National Hispanic American Heritage Month coming to a close on Oct. 15, Gomez said she celebrates the month and her own unique culture by sharing knowledge and experiences.
“If you ask my friends, they would tell you that as soon as you walk into my house, I have a lot of mementos and wall decorations [from El Salvador],” Gomez said. “It’s very prevalent in my house and even at my desk at the office that I have on campus.”
She shared that the decorations in her office often spark conversations about her heritage and El Salvador. It gives her the chance to tell people that while it's the smallest country in Central America, it's also home to stunning landscapes—mountains, volcanoes, and beaches with waves that attract surfers from around the world.
“I just think that it’s important to make sure that people know about each other’s struggles, whether you’re Hispanic or not, just give each other a break,” Gomez said. “Be sympathetic and help each other out because in the end, we’re all here, we’re all just trying to do our best and we shouldn’t judge anybody on what they can’t control.”
She’s seen this embrace of diversity from her leaders and explained that that’s part of what makes them effective.
“It is important for leadership to embrace diversity in their groups,” she said. "Caring about your Soldiers and making sure they are taking care of themselves – especially when so many people depend on them – is important.”