Name: River Castelonia
Year: Junior
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Spirit animal?
A blue Jay, because I always feel like I’m looking ahead. I feel like I have a good understand of what my surrounding are and a blue jay is able to figure out how to navigate itself an it uses it surrounding to get from point A to point B.
Why did you choose Manhattan?
I used to think that epiphanies were not real and that was until I had one. So one morning when I was at my old school I woke up from a nightmare and was just like I have to leave this place. I wasn’t really liking where I was so I decided to just skip out on all my work for the day and search for schools to transfer to. My friend and I actually transferred together. I got to tour the school and I thought the engineering faculties were awesome and I’ve always wanted to come to NYC so this was the perfect choice.
Are you overall happy with your choice to switch schools?
Absolutely, coming to Manhattan gave me the ability to get the internships that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do. And since being here I was able to work at Tesla and start Haven Labs. I would have never been able to do that at my old school.
Okay now tell me a little about Haven Labs?
So Haven Labs is a non-profit that we founded just last semester. We are a group of engineers, programmers, and thinkers. And right now what we’ve done is were about to launch our first open sourced prosthetics for amputees. And what that basically is going to do is because it’s open sourced anyone in the world will have access to it. What we’re trying to do is make this type of technology accessible to people all over the world to that can’t afford high cost prosthetics. Recently we just got offered a scholarship from Google and we’re going to be working downtown on 5th avenue. We’ll be using this place to do research and design these parts.
What inspired you to do such an amazing thing?
When I was at Sienna I started listening to these really motivational speeches by Eric Thomas. In one of the speeches that he gave he made this comment about sacrificing what you are for what you will become and I really internalized that. So when I came to Manhattan I just started searching for opportunities that would make me thrive in New York City. But over my entire grandpa inspired me. He was a disabled war veteran and he basically served as a second dad to me growing up so I have a deep respect for him and the things he’s done for me as well as what he’s done for our country. So I kept that with me, as I got older and used that as the framework for the company.
Any final thing you’d like to tell our campus?
Don’t let what other people tell you become your reality. Make your own path and follow your heart.
Check out his TEDTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WswVO4bZtqg