Engineering a Dream
Jacob Boedeker
Personal Essay for Student Fasttrack
From a young age, I’ve always had a fascination with the function and constructing of machines. From a young age, I would try to understand how things worked and had a keen interest in a vast array of machinery. As I got older, I knew engineering would be the perfect field for me. Fresh out of high school, I began drafting a plan on how I would achieve my goals to be an engineer. I spent much of my teenaged years behind bars – that is to say, I spent nearly every day after school behind the handlebars of a dirt bike or an ATV. While owning machines such as these, I taught myself how to maintain them, and as the hobby grew into a passion, I learned how to upgrade them to be faster and to better suit my riding. This skill set of mechanics would culminate as a sort of “launchpad” for further projects and endeavors, as it was where I had my first opportunities to work on machinery. Fresh out of high school, I began attending Wilkes University’s Mechanical Engineering program. For 3 years I studied material sciences, physics, mathematics, and various other subjects in pursuit of my dream, all while maintaining a full-time job. However, I was thrown a bit of a curveball in life that forced me to withdraw from the school. After departing Wilkes, I took a series of jobs – starting with work in a retail pharmacy before attaining a new position at a motorcycle dealership in Dunmore, PA. I stayed with the bike shop for nearly 5 years as a Vehicle Sales Consultant. While I didn’t of - ten get to use my mechanical knowledge, I still learned a lot while I was at the shop. It greatly helped my people-skills, and there were some technical skills I picked up on from talking to the mechanics there. While I enjoyed my time in the bike business, I was left wanting. I wanted to go back and finish an engineering degree and pursue a career in engineering. That is when I found the Engineering Design and Manufacturing Technologies (EDM) track at LCCC. After some research, I reached out and coordinated to start in the program. During my second semester, I was offered an intern position with a large, internation- al flooring manufacturer who was in the process of establishing a new factory right in Pittston Township. I was able to use the mechanical skills I already possessed and was able to learn some new ones on the job, as we worked to construct an assembly line in a 35,000-square foot warehouse. In time, I also learned how to fill the chemical
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