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MENTORSHIP PROGRAM CREATES EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS
Siblings Teresa (’91, ’02) and Joe (’96) King are using their Central education and professional experience at Boeing to give back to current students by becoming mentors. Earning both her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering technology (MET) and graduate degree in engineering technology from Central, Teresa has had a long career in the field and spent the last 17 years at Boeing where she is currently the cabin development and integration senior project manager. Likewise, her brother Joe earned his degree in MET and has spent the bulk of his career at Boeing where he currently leads the functional integration single and multiple failure team for the 777X development program supporting certification deliverables.
In 2022, Joe and Teresa mentored four students who all got jobs with Boeing after graduating. In 2023, Teresa finished the year having mentored five students, three of which have already been hired into careers in their field and the remaining two she is working on getting placed as entry-level engineers. “Both Joe and I have been very fortunate that we had such a great mentor in our MET chair when we were at Central,” said Teresa. “The late Walt Kaminski was our champion. He truly believed in his students, and I personally feel I would not be where I am if it weren’t for his unwavering support. I thought this would be a great way to honor his legacy and saw it as a chance to give back.” Looking to the future, both Teresa and Joe plan to continue mentoring Central students and encourage other alumni to give it a try. I think a lot of alumni think that the only way to give back is financially,” said Teresa. “I would encourage alumni to think outside the box because giving back can come in so many forms. Alumni are doing great things and many students could benefit from their expertise. I got so much out of mentoring that I wished I would have done this sooner.”
“The MET degree I earned at Central helped prepare me for my professional career,” said Joe. “I wanted to share this experience with CWU engineering students, and Teresa and I recognized that soft- skill development is key to success in any professional career, so we developed the mentoring program to emphasize that throughout their senior project work.” Not only do Teresa and Joe work with their mentees on topics pertinent to working in the MET field, but they also focus on what Joe refers to as ‘soft skills.’ This includes facilitating in-person dry- run presentations of student senior project presentations and a resume writing workshop that helps put their best foot forward when applying for jobs.
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If you’re interested in becoming a mentor to CWU students, please visit cwu.edu/alumni.
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