A native of Ecuador, Daniel Changkuon was studying to become an electrical engineer when he realized he was spending more time on a web development business he was doing on the side than he was on his engineering studies.

So he moved to the United States, transferred to Oregon State and started working full-time on his passion, and toward the goal of owning his own company.

He got involved with the Business Solutions Group, the Association of Latin American Students and the Students of Information Management (SIM) Club. Daniel eventually became president of SIM Club, working on a program to extract quiz scores from a SharePoint site automatically so professors wouldn't have to do so manually.

Daniel interned at Nike as a security process engineer before graduating with degrees in BIS, accountancy and international business and going to work as a consultant for Deloitte LLP, one of the "Big Four" accounting firms.

"My mom always tells me that I am very lucky," Daniel said. "I would like to call it having a goal in mind and challenging myself to reach my dreams."