Office Hours

Giselle (00:08):
Hi everybody, my name's Giselle, and I'm the digital marketing strategist here at Texas State University. You're listening to Office Hours, and I'm here with Caleb, one of our interns here at the Division of Marketing and Communications. Caleb, what's up?

Caleb (00:21):
What's going on? How you doing?

Giselle (00:22):
I'm good, how are you? CALEB: I'm doing great. So how was that conversation between you and Dr. Moro?

Caleb (00:27):
It was awesome to hear some of his experiences, like being a foreign student to just like seeing like the difference between like how it is in Europe versus how is it in Americas. It was cool.

Giselle (00:37):
Yeah. Is there anything that you remembered that like really stuck with you?

Caleb (00:41):
He dropped the gem and he said, he was like, "the path made me," I was like, dude, that's a bar. That's a bar, man.

Giselle (00:48):
It was, it was awesome. Yeah, he's super cool. So yeah guys, um, we hope you enjoy this conversation between Caleb and Dr. Moro.

Caleb (00:59):
Okay. So we'll start with introducing yourself. So what's your name, your role at the university, and what courses do you teach?

Carlos Moro (01:05):
Yeah. I'm Carlos Moro. I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology. I teach engineering tech courses like statics and strength, but also CIM courses, like concrete properties or scheduling.

Caleb (01:19):
So if you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be? I know I'm putting you on the spot with this, but me personally, my answer would be Jay-Z. So what would your answer be?

Carlos Moro (01:30):
So, probably my answer would be my grandpa that died like three years ago. So I would like to update him with all the good things that are happening to me right now.

Caleb (01:40):
Okay. Okay. That's awesome. So, switching gears a little bit, I wanna know about more about like how you got here to where you are. Have you always wanted to be a professor and like what did you wanna be growing up?

Carlos Moro (01:51):
Actually no, I always say that instead of making my path, the path made me, so I went with the flow. So I just finished a bachelor degree, then I finished a master's, then I started working, then my contract was ending, so I accepted a Ph.D. position in a university. Then I was completely sure that I wanted to do, to go for industry, but then in the middle I changed my mind , so I decided to be a professor. And then here I am in Texas .

Caleb (02:26):
So what was your first job?

Carlos Moro (02:28):
My first job was in an industry company, in a bridge company. So we were like designing bridges back in Spain.

Caleb (02:36):
So where did you go to college and what did you major in?

Carlos Moro (02:39):
So I went to college in my home country, in Spain, in a city called La Coruña. And then also I did my Ph.D. at Purdue, and my major was in all of them was civil engineering.

Caleb (02:53):
Is, college is very different like from Spain to America. So what was college like for you and like what would you say is the biggest hurdle you had to go through?

Carlos Moro (03:01):
So yeah, college was definitely a different experience for me because I was living in my home, so I was living with my parents yet . So I didn't experience like all the fraternity life or like the dorms experience, but it was definitely like a good experience. I wish I could have done the other thing, but it was definitely like, getting some savings because of that .

Caleb (03:29):
Okay. So how did you end up in the concrete industry? Like what's the story behind that?

Carlos Moro (03:35):
It was mainly the path that chose me because like I like several things. I like other like civil engineering paths, like transportation or like hydraulics. But I finally decided in the concrete industry because of the opportunities that I was getting.

Caleb (03:55):
Okay. So how long have you been teaching at Texas State?

Carlos Moro (03:59):
So this is my fourth semester right now. So I started in January 2022.

Caleb (04:06):
Okay. So you said like the path kind of made you. So what along that path would you say like the defining moment that like really made, like shaped who you are today?

Carlos Moro (04:16):
So that defining moment could be like a bad thing for some of people. That was whenever I had to, I didn't have, well, my advisor didn't have funding to be a research assistant anymore, so I had to do a teaching assistant, and that was really switched my brain off and I wanted, and after that I wanted to be a professor.

Caleb (04:40):
So what has been your favorite moment of teaching here? Like your favorite memory or?

Carlos Moro (04:46):
So my favorite memory probably is like whenever I received a, I don't know, like an update from like a former student, like that he or she gets like a really cool job or like a great achievement. For example, like to put an example, we presented in a poster competition in the sustainability position in Texas State, and our students got first place. So I was really proud of them.

Caleb (05:16):
So what is like a piece of advice that you constantly find yourself having to say to students?

Carlos Moro (05:23):
To be... I think that that applies to me as well, and needs to be hardworking. Uh, like probably you will not do it right the first time, but at some point you will. So if you persist then you will get it.

Caleb (05:37):
If you can like, go back in time and speak to a young Dr. Moro, what would you tell yourself?

Carlos Moro (05:43):
Don't get so stressed about everything and then relax a little bit. .

Caleb (05:52):
So what keeps you motivated?

Carlos Moro (05:55):
The students basically, like having the students with interest with new research ideas, with new, I dunno, with new motivation that really is what gives me all the motivation that I have every day.

Caleb (06:12):
I'm graduating this summer, and I'm kind of worried about like, making that jump into like going from student to being like, I guess you could say a full-time adult. Mm-hmm. . So what do you think is important for me to know about the real world after college?

Carlos Moro (06:25):
That you don't have to know everything beforehand. What I mean is like, don't be worried about not knowing anything the first day because it's the normal feeling that everyone has, and then that everyone, that you are gonna get to that spot at some point. So like, as I said, I was going to say to young Carlos Moro like, relax yourself and to shut down your phone during classes. So in that case you don't tempt to use it because I think that we or us, like the professors try to do our classes the best that we can, but if the students are with the phones, they cannot get everything. And I think that you, at some point you are gonna regret not listening to some of the lecture that you're receiving. I dunno if that makes sense. ?

Caleb (07:21):
Yes. That's awesome. That's great advice. Thank you so much to Dr. Moro for meeting with me and sharing some of your experiences with us. And also thank you for listening to this episode of the Office Hours podcast. My name is Caleb, and I'll see you next time.