“When I was a kid, we were homeless. We didn’t really have money, we would have to steal for food. [My mom] was really into drugs, so it was very difficult,” Joe Alvarez, 25, welding engineer major, said. “When I grew older I started going to the boxing gym [with my dad]. I guess martial arts helped me. It was a trade off, my dad would put my mom and my brother into a trailer home and dealt with their living expenses if I went with him. It was good, better than before. We traveled for tournaments and even went to Korea and Brazil. Now, I’ve tried looking for something different, so I got into welding.”