I attended SDSU from 2017-2022 to get a degree in Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering with a focus on power machines. During my time at State, I was a member of the Quarter Scale Tractor Club and was a part of two International Quarter Scale Championships. I was also a member of JTEC. These two clubs really helped me develop skills and work with industry professionals and being able to apply them before even getting into jobs. Classes I took helped to prepare me for future work I would do in industry as well. Being able to have a power machine focus gave me the option to help better prepare myself for the industry I was pursuing. The faculty around the Ag and Biosystems Department were very helpful and great part of getting us prepared to solve problems by either being past industry professionals or keeping us very well connected with current ones. I did attend Career Fairs, and which helped me get into contact with companies. I ended up taking two Co-Ops with a company during my time at State where I took off a semester to work a longer internship. This did help me secure a full-time position at the company after college and is a great opportunity that SDSU encourages.

I am now currently working at Vermeer Corporation as a Design Engineer on their forage side of the business in Pella IA. I am on the Pro Baler product team, which is Vermeer’s silage baler product line. Vermeer offers a wide range of equipment that are in niche product lines which offer great opportunities to innovate. Being on their silage baler team I take care of the design work that goes into bringing a baler into production. We strive to bring the best products to market and to do this we have to dive deep into to designs of parts and assemblies through CAD. Then once we get the designs then we get to build them and test them out. For testing I get to travel and visit customers and machines all over the US as well as close to our facilities. The opportunities I had at SDSU really helped to prepare me for going out and solving problems and now I get to do that as my full-time job on equipment I have a passion for.

My advice for students would be to get involved with something, if its clubs, internships, or just things you have at home that challenge you to get more experience to add to your education. The best things I learned came from not just getting told how to do something but going out having lots of unknowns and working with people and on my own to find solutions. Going through this kind of stuff helps develop you as a person and student to make you feel more prepared for the future no matter where you want to end up.