Figuring Out How the Pieces Work Together
What a Lawnmower Engine Taught Rodrigo Camarena About His Future
Rodrigo Camarena was a freshman at Port Aransas High School when his engineering teacher, a former engineer named Mr. Piwetz, handed his class a lawnmower and told them to take it apart.
"This was so fascinating to me that it immediately made this class my all-time favorite," Rodrigo said. As the year went on, the projects got bigger — Rube Goldberg machines, benches the students had to design themselves from scratch. What stuck with him wasn't any single project. It was the pattern underneath all of them: taking things apart, figuring out how the pieces worked together, and putting them back in a way that made sense. That pattern became the reason he chose mechanical engineering.
A Rivalry That Kept Score
Rodrigo names two words when asked to describe the themes of his life so far: competition and hard work. The competition started at home, with his older brother, who is one year ahead of him and now attends the same university.
"We would always alternate on who had higher scores, but I had to settle the competition, and I eventually medaled," Rodrigo said of their years trading places on UIL Academic teams. That back-and-forth is part of what pushed him into dual-credit courses and AP tests, and eventually to graduating as valedictorian of Port Aransas High School's Class of 2026. The two brothers are now navigating college a year apart, still measuring themselves against each other. As Rodrigo puts it, the competition continues.
Hard Work, on the Clock and in the Classroom
The second theme — hard work —has a more literal home: his family's restaurant. Rodrigo's parents immigrated from a small town near Jesús María, Jalisco, Mexico, and opened a Mexican restaurant in Port Aransas with his uncle, working double shifts to get it off the ground. Rodrigo grew up helping out there as a busser and cashier, working close to 40 hours a week during high school — bussing tables, taking orders, doing whatever the restaurant needed.
Balancing that schedule with honors classes surprises people who hear about it. "Most people seem to assume that it would drag my GPA down," Rodrigo said. "They didn't expect me to graduate as valedictorian while doing it."
Outside of school and work, Rodrigo put in hours for his community too. He logged 40 volunteer hours at Texas SandFest, helping with kids' activities and event operations, and spent time organizing National Honor Society blood drives and fundraisers during his junior and senior years, when he also served as NHS Vice President.
Building Toward Mechanical Engineering
Rodrigo is now studying mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, with an expected graduation year of 2030. He's still deciding on a specific direction within the field, weighing the aerospace and automotive industries. Texas A&M's Society of Automotive Engineers chapter, which gives students hands-on experience building Formula and Baja race cars, has caught his attention as a way to explore that interest further.
Longer-term, Rodrigo hopes to pursue a master's degree in mechanical engineerin, gain experience in the field, and eventually start an engineering business alongside his brother. Two younger sisters are watching how this next chapter unfolds, and Rodrigo said he wants them to see that hard work and a good education pay off — the same lesson his parents built a restaurant on.
Rodrigo's story is a reminder of what the Frazier Family Foundation believes: that intelligent and creative minds should never go untapped because of where someone lives or circumstances beyond their control. Rodrigo built his foundation — in a classroom, at a restaurant, and on a UIL scoreboard — long before the Foundation entered the picture. The scholarship is there to help him keep building.
Learn more about our scholars and the Frazier Family Foundation’s mission to open doors for tomorrow’s leaders at https://www.frazierff.org/news.
