Alberto Nunez is a junior aerospace engineering major, who’s currently attending Georgia Tech University. Even though he attends Georgia Tech, Nunez was a member of the Piedmont men’s tennis team for his first two years of college. Coming in with credits already, Nunez attended Piedmont’s three plus two engineering program partnered with Georgia Tech.
“Coming from Peru and wanting to somewhat follow the footsteps of my parents, I wanted to become an engineer and graduate from a well named school, but also wanted to play tennis,” said Nunez.
Born and raised in Lima Peru, Nunez was exposed to all types of sports starting at a young age. Every summer from the time he was three, Nunez played three to four sports to stay active. At the age of three was also when he picked up a racquet for the first time after his dad had knee surgery.
“My dad had knee surgery and was told by his doctor to stay active, so he made my brother and I go with him every Sunday, at 6 am, to play tennis,” said Nunez.
After a few years Nunez dropped all his other sports and solely focused on tennis. With that his parents went all in with him, and he still played every Sunday with his dad, but also trained three to four days a week to perfect his craft. Once he was 16, Nunez started thinking heavily about school. In getting him the best opportunity, Nunez and his family invested in a recruitment company that reached out to all schools in all divisions in the United States.
“My parents wanted me to go to a well-known school like Princeton, Columbia or Brown, but I knew I wanted to play tennis and I wouldn’t be good enough to compete at these schools,” said Nunez.
After hiring the recruitment company, Nunez received over 250 offers ranging from all levels in the United States. With the high number of offers received, Nunez made an excel sheet to organize all the schools by division, scholarship and expressed interest. While this was overwhelming Nunez went to work looking at the responses and making a top 10 list.
“Piedmont instantly looked perfect because of the engineering program with Georgia Tech and coach Stockton pitched a great offer,” said Nunez.
Nunez ultimately chose Piedmont and played at the top of the line-up his freshman year. Two years later he sadly had to hang up his racquets and transfer to Georgia Tech to finish his degree.
“I’m glad that I took the route I did, because I was able to play the sport I’ve loved for so long and get a degree from one of the top engineering schools in the nation,” said Nunez.
