How Hermann Klein-Hessling Barrientos built opportunity from adversity
Photo caption: Hermann Klein-Hessling Barrientos (right), Summit Shreshta (center) and Owen Sabolcik (left) make the sign of Ralphie's horns after taking the engineer’s oath at the College of Engineering 2025 Ring & Pin Graduation Ceremony.
Hermann Klein-Hessling Barrientos arrived at С Boulder alone in the summer of 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, not knowing anyone or what to expect in the U.S. Though born in Minnesota to a Mexican mother and German father, his parents left the country when he was just a toddler, and he grew up across Europe and graduated from high school in Singapore.
His С Boulder story is defined by his resilience—struggling with housing, medical and food insecurity while maintaining a rigorous course load and strong work ethic.
This spring, Barrientos will graduate with a BS in chemical engineering, and he received the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Perseverance Award. But despite his hardships, he is also being recognized as the Outstanding Undergraduate of the College for his exceptional accomplishments in research, academia, community and global engagement.
"I succeeded despite my circumstances, not because of them,” Barrientos said. “I primarily attribute my accomplishments not to hard work or talent but luck, although I believe that luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
Hermann Klein-Hessling Barrientos stands by a Yosemite National Park sign during a weekend camping trip while participating in the Caltech Resnick Undergraduate Research Fellowship in summer 2023.
Barrientos’ six-page CV reads more like that of someone with a PhD than an undergraduate student. He has authored two journal papers, presented research at seven national conferences and symposiums and has been a researcher in theWeimer Research Group since he was a freshman.
His list of extracurricular activities is extensive, including a study abroad experience in Ireland and membership in С Boulder’s. He has wonthree consecutive American Institute of Chemical Engineers poster competitions and earned numerous honors, including a Caltech Resnick Undergraduate Research Fellowship, aDiscovery Learning Apprenticeship Undergraduate Research Fellowship and anUndergraduate Research Opportunities Program Summer Grant. He is the professional development coordinator of the Chemical Engineering Honor Society Omega Chi Epsilon and has been recognized as aBOLD Leadership Scholar.
“There’s always a way to figure out how to make it work, but you have to be comfortable putting yourself out there and asking for help,” Barrientos said. “It can be very hard.”
Laying the groundwork
After graduating from high school in Singapore, Barrientos spent a gap year in South Africa—first as an aerospace engineering intern, then in a materials science internship.
With strict pandemic restrictions in Asia, returning to his family in Singapore wasn’t an option, so his parents encouraged him to begin his college education immediately. С Boulder’s scholarships and the opportunity to engage in undergraduate research ultimately tipped the scale in С’s favor for Barrientos.
Barrientos operates a glovebox in the Weimer Lab during his freshman year.
“I heard good things about С Boulder’s engineering program from my high school counselor in Singapore, especially about undergraduate research,” he said. “In other countries, you have to wait till you are a PhD student to get involved in research. I didn’t want to wait. Research teaches you more than learning from a textbook.”
That same sense of urgency extended to his classes. In 2020, during the university’s COVID-19 shutdown when everything was online, Hermann reached out to Teaching Associate Professor Paul Diduch to learn more about theHerbst Program for Engineering, Ethics & Society, and the two connected over Zoom.
“He was clearly interested,” Diduch said. “I was impressed with how much research Hermann had done in advance of our meeting, how keen his questions were and how serious and self-directed his intentions were.”
Two months before arriving in Boulder, Barrientos also contacted Teaching Professor EmeritusLeland Giovannelli to discuss course content, review materials and get a head start on the readings for Giovannelli’s upcoming class, “A Global State of Mind for Effective Engineering Practice.”
“He did not want to waste a moment in his education,” she said.
Barrientos also reached out early to Teaching ProfessorAngela Thieman-Dinoof the Engineering Leadership Program, expressing anxiety about traveling to the U.S. alone, completing orientation and moving into his dorm without either parent present—while facing the difficult reality that he likely wouldn’t see them again for a long time due to COVID-19 restrictions. Thieman-Dino also said that Barrientos was eager for guidance around engaging in research. He joined her upper-division Engineering Leadership class as a first-year student to learn about conducting inquiry about complex leadership challenges while focusing his own project on engineering, sustainability and agriculture.
“I'm delighted to see how he has continued to engage in meaningful research throughout his time at С,” Thieman-Dino said.
Navigating alone
Barrientos flew from Cape Town to Detroit—a less expensive destination than Denver—with little money and no idea how he’d get to Boulder. Undeterred, Barrientos drew on his creative resourcefulness, the support of the С Boulder community and the kindness of strangers.
Barrientos and two other students hold awards at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2023 National Conference in Orlando, Florida.
He couch-surfed with people he met along the way, eventually flying to Denver using funds from a Go Fund Me campaign a friend from Singapore launched on his behalf.
Barrientos had reached out to Jennifer Williams, executive director of Take Action Global (TAG)—a nonprofit organization focused on empowering students to take action for a cleaner environment—where he had previously volunteered. In response, Williams contactedNoah Geisel,micro-credentials program manager at С Boulder’s Office of the Registrar, to request assistance for Barrientos, who would bearriving in Boulder alone before the campus dormitories opened.
“I was happy to host him in my home as he began his С Boulder journey,” Geisel said. “I am now proud to see him demonstrating the results of what is possible when combining passion and talent with a world-class college education.”
After staying with Geisel, Barrientos joined aStampede Leadership Camp for three days before his first semester started, which allowed him a place to sleep and three meals a day.
Barrientos experienced an unexpected obstacle his second semester, as a surge in COVID-19 cases and the Marshall Fire—which destroyed approximately 1,000 structures on Dec. 30, 2021—delayed move-in for the campus dormitories. With nowhere to live, Barrientos petitioned to serve as a resident assistant (RA) in Williams Village, where the university was housing those affected by the fire. His application was accepted, and he was able to RA for two weeks there before starting his official RA position in Andrews Hall the spring semester of his freshman year. But he soon faced the 25-hour weekly work limit for students and had to choose between being an RA or pursuing research. He chose research.
After his first year in the С Boulder dormitories, Barrientos tried to find a place to rent to lower expenses; finding housing was a challenge. Landlords refused to rent to him because his parents, who weren’t U.S. citizens, couldn’t cosign his lease.Without a credit score tied to his parents and with no Social Security history, he was often mistaken for—or profiled as—undocumented even though he was an American citizen, he said.
Barrientos and another student stand in front of a poster at the Caltech Final Summer Research Symposium in 2023.
In order to rent, Barrientos generally neededa one-month security deposit plus the first month's rent. С staff were limited in how they could help, and local organizations that help low-income individuals told him he was a low priority as they prioritized families with small children.
He eventually found someone willing to rent an apartment to him the summer after his freshman year.
Throughout his undergraduate career, Barrientos consistently held at least one job, he said. At his busiest, he juggled four simultaneously. Each summer he secured internships to earn enough to cover his fall tuition and rent. He established a high credit score and by legally declaring his scholarships as income, qualified for leases without needing a co-signer.
Diduch said that when Barrientos was in his class, he frequently checked in with him.
“In addition to a high course load, he was also working,” Diduch said. “He was sleep deprived and stressed out. Despite it all, he always managed to get his work done, perform to a high level, and most importantly, have something thoughtful to say in class.
“I've always known Hermann to be remarkably driven and self-directed. He constantly makes things happen for himself and is incredibly resourceful. I'm not sure I've encountered a harder working student, at least in terms of sheer ability to open doors, manufacture opportunities and produce results.”
New challenges
Barrientos faced continued financial issues. Not graduating from a U.S. high school automatically disqualified him from roughly 50 percent of available scholarships, he said. He was also unable to petition for in-state tuition.
His sophomore year was especially difficult. After losing several close friends and facing other personal challenges, he began to struggle with mental health issuesand considered taking an extended leave of absence from С Boulder or transferring to a university in the Netherlands.
“A lot of bad things happened all at once, and I had to work really hard to get out of that rut, which I did, he said. “I wanted my family to know that I tried my best.
“My struggles highlighted the importance of men's mental health to me, and I decided to be open about my struggles with suicide ideation,” he said. “I'd like to extend my gratitude to Assistant Teaching Professors Jonathan Kish and Osita Onyejekwe and to Laura Thompson, a licensed professional counselor, for being there when I needed someone to talk to.”
Barrientos stands in front of the Dow Chemical Complex in Freeport, Texas, during his summer 2024 internship with Dow.
He’s grateful to С Boulder’sBuff Pantry at the Basic Needs Center for providing food when he couldn’t afford groceries or access banking services—even before his first semester began. He’s also thankful to Giovannelli, who noticed during a Zoom call that he needed basic necessities, and along with Rebecca Komarek, assistant director of Idea Forge, brought him sheets, blankets and other essentials. He’s especially appreciative of ProfessorAlan Weimer, who welcomed him as a freshman undergraduate researcher and supported him throughout all four years. And finally, he’s grateful for all the donors “who took the risk of investing in my success.”
“If I had financial security from the get-go, it would have been different,” Barrientos said. “Not having it tainted a lot of my experiences. I always worried about money. Several times I thought I would have to drop out because I couldn’t pay tuition, or I worried I would lose all my scholarships and then get kicked out of the college.”
But that never happened.
As his education progressed, Barrientos’ financial pressure eased. He received a combination of private scholarships and support from donors who invested in his success, and by his junior year, his tuition was fully covered. The summer after his junior year he paid down nearly $20,000 in student loans by interning at Dow Chemical in Freeport, Texas.
His current research, part of an interdisciplinary NASA project, focuses on enhancing metals with atomic layer deposition to improve properties like strength and the ability to withstand higher temperatures—both crucial for manufacturing spacecraft components. The improvements also make it easier to produce customized parts with complex geometries at lower costs and on a larger scale, he said.
After graduation, Barrientos plans to relocate to Ohio to begin a refining engineering role within the operations research department in a Fortune 25 company.
Barrientos says his immediate goal is to support his parents' retirement. Once they are financially secure, he intends to return to academia to pursue a graduate degree in engineering.
“He is eager to make his mark on the world,” Giovannelli said. “With his tremendous creativity, intelligence and appetite for hard work, he will surely do so.”