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Award-winning entrepreneur ready to serve her community after graduation

UTSA Grad Cecilia FloresCecilia Flores is a first-generation college student majoring in biomedical engineering. She also happens to be a Texas College of Business Hall of Fame Scholar finalist. She earned this distinction by co-founding Making Every Customer Matter, or MECM Medical, a company whose mission is to increase the quality of life for underserved and overlooked populations affected by disease, health conditions and disorders.

Cecilia grew up in a low-income neighborhood in the east Texas town of Quitman. She saw her parents struggle with how to care for her brother, who handles hardships from spina bifida. After transferring to UTSA, Cecilia became interested in leveraging her biomedical engineering education into a business opportunity to increase driver safety.

Due to the pandemic, Cecilia noted commercial drivers were working nearly three times their usual shifts and having difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Through her senior design program, Cecilia and her MECM Medical teammates, created a unique device to help keep commercial drivers awake during their shifts.

Once fatigue is detected in the driver, the device flashes a bright red LED light and sends a message to a dispatcher, who will call the driver to advise them to take a break before driving again.

“My biomedical engineering professors are wonderful,” Cecilia said. “If I had gone to another university, I might not have experienced genuine care for myself. As a person, you know, they care about me.”

Cecilia greatly appreciates the support and encouragement she received from the UTSA faculty. Cecilia credits them for helping her identify talents she had and then motivating her to develop them at UTSA.

Before attending UTSA, she was anxious about going into the real world, but her professors validated her experience and encouraged her to keep going.

See the full story on UTSA Today.