Calculating a Career

You know that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel? The one I mentioned yesterday regarding Daniel’s academic career? Nathan has been seeing that light as well and today it was his turn to step into the bright light of being a college grad. While Daniel knew what he wanted to do career-wise when he was about five minutes old, Nathan was more normal. He went through several ideas over the years. As a middle schooler, inspired by Mr. Davis, his beloved choir teacher, he was thinking that being a choir teacher would be absolutely fantastic. In high school he realized that being a public-school teacher would make it difficult to support a family and his focus shifted. He had a fantastic physics teacher (a teacher that my dad worked with years ago while he was still teaching) and his thoughts turned to majoring in physics. As a junior in high school, a brand-new high school opened that covered our area and he was instrumental in building what has become a large and successful math department. His enthusiasm for the subject and his desire for upper-level math classes helped prioritize some of those classes as the math department structured their class offerings. He would frequently come home from school and use the whiteboard I have on the fridge to show me what he did in his math class that day. He was just so excited that he had to share it.

Nathan started college with a plan to major in physics, but as he got going in college-level classes, he discovered that the math was what he really liked about physics. That realization led him to shift to a major in math. When the chronic headaches and migraines brought him home from his mission earlier than anticipated, he also discovered that he loves reading all the statistical data that’s included with the prescription medications that he was given. Most of us throw those informational leaflets away, the ones that detail all the FDA studies that were done prior to approval of the medication, but Nathan read them for fun. That fascination led him in the direction of statistics, and he settled on a major in math with a degree in math statistics composite and a desire to work in the field of data analytics.

During his time at USU, Nathan has made his mark in the math department. Students taking math classes at USU register for a recitation in addition to their main course. The recitation is basically a smaller class led by an upper-level math student and designed as a supporting class period in which to ask questions and get help with the concepts taught in the larger classes. Nathan was encouraged to apply to be a recitation leader a few years back and it has been one of the numerous jobs he has worked concurrently over his college years. This past summer he was also asked to work with the Aggie Math Learning Center to compile data relating student visits to the AMLC to how well they do in their classes to show correlation between visits and success in classes as well as to supply justification for funding. In addition to using his math prowess to make sense of the data, he used the programing skills he had gained in a basic programing class to create an online dashboard as an easy-to-understand visualization of his results. The professors in the math department were enormously impressed with his work, and it has already been useful to them. 

During this graduation season, he was the recipient of awards for both the outstanding undergraduate recitation leader and outstanding math/stats composite undergrad. He also graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.95 GPA and a minor in ASL. As one of the top students in the undergrad math department, he was invited to be interviewed for a series of short videos highlighting exceptional students from all fifteen departments in the newly merged college of arts and sciences. (More on that massive merger upcoming.) Snippets of a few of these videos were played as we waited for the ceremony to start, and Nathan was one of the lucky winners of a minute on the big screen. He was also featured in the Utah Stateman, the USU student newspaper.  While he never makes choices based on how much attention he will gain, he does strive for excellence and that has obviously been noticed throughout his time at USU.

I promised more info on the huge college of arts and sciences, so here it comes. Due to state mandated budget cuts, the university decided to merge the colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of the Arts, and the College of Science into one massive college. That merger decreased day-to-day running costs, but it also means that half of the university is contained in that one college. Which also means that half the students graduating were doing so in one massive ceremony. Having said that, the graduation definitely could have been worse. Although about 1100 students graduated, only 700 actually participated in the commencement. It only took an hour and 15 minutes to read all the names. And they didn’t play Pomp and Circumstance, which was a bit surprising, but at least we didn’t have to hear the same two minutes of music repeated ad nauseum for over an hour. The entire program lasted just over two hours, but it could have been shortened if the person introducing the valedictorian had given a briefer introduction. It was one part of the proceedings that was far too long. The valedictorian didn’t speak for a terribly long time though, so that was good. The other speaker was a grad from 1998 and a current doctoral candidate. He is from Iran and his story of coming to the U.S. for college was interesting until he asked for donations and a QR code was flashed up on all the screens. In my opinion, that was in poor taste. And I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I have not talked to anyone who had any idea what he said after that. Anyway, lack of tact aside, we survived the graduation and had pizza and Aggie ice cream at Daniel and Tawni’s apartment to conclude our evening. 

Nathan is not sure what is next for him. He is planning to stay in Logan for the summer and then move back (almost) home if he doesn’t have a job and somewhere else to live by then. The job market is tough right now and both he and Daniel are dealing with a multitude of resumes and job applications submitted with very few responses of any kind. That brings with it a great deal of uncertainty. And so, Nathan has plans to study for his next ASL professional certification test so he can hopefully pick up more interpreting hours while he is looking for a job in his preferred career field. And if finding that job takes longer than hoped for, at least he will have a lucrative side job that he is well qualified to do.

The Wild Blue Yonder

You know that light at the end of the tunnel? The one Daniel has been seeing all year? Well, today he finally emerged from the darkness of undergrad academia into the light of having earned his Bachelor of Engineering with a major in aerospace engineering. This kid has been leaning towards a career in engineering almost all of his life. He did take a brief foray into the study of dinosaurs as a preschooler (At his preschool graduation when most kids announced that they wanted to be firefighters, policemen, or superheroes, he proudly proclaimed that he wanted to be a paleontologist. The people sitting behind us murmured that the parents must have coached him, not knowing we were the parents. I can assure you there was absolutely no input from us. It was 100% Daniel.) but by first grade he was firmly grounded in space travel. And his fascination with all things that fly has not diminished over the years.

Starting at about age four, Daniel turned his eyes and his aspirations to the sky. That was the year I sewed an astronaut costume for Halloween. In first grade he had the opportunity to meet a real astronaut and that solidified his desire to fly. As a fourth grader he discovered origami and a lifelong hobby was born. Within a few years, he progressed far enough that he became aware of the work of origami master and mathematician Robert Lang, who was deeply entrenched in the field of space origami. Meeting Lang was another experience that reinforced his passions. Cub Scout space derbies and teachers who gave him opportunities to build and launch rockets added further fuel to the fire. He visited as many airplane museums and attended as many airshows as he could, and his love of flight continued to grow. (In fact, the first time anyone in our family besides Nathan-who you will remember was one of Daniel’s roommates-met Tawni was at an airshow. Malia and I missed out on that one due to a complete lack of caring about the whole airplanes bit, but Kevin and Matthew got to meet her!) As his schooling progressed, he leaned into his strengths in math and sciences and decided engineering was the route he wanted to take. Post mission, he enrolled at USU and began the process of learning the nuts and bolts of engineering. I think one of the amazing things about Daniel is that despite the years of study and hard work, the many tests studied for and passed, and the many hours spent head down in his homework, he still gets just as excited about space travel as he did as a four-year-old. Only now that he has a better understanding of all the many things that have to be designed, produced and deployed perfectly to make it all happen, I think he appreciates it even more. As an example, he closely followed the launch and mission of the Artemis II last month with complete fascination. If you ask him about it, expect to get a detailed and enthusiastic account of the mission. His eyes light up and everything when he talks about it.

Today, Daniel reached a major milestone in his journey towards the sky. With his finals finished and his capstone project completed, it was finally graduation day. The college of engineering is one of the larger colleges at USU (although nowhere near as massive as the college Nathan is in-more on that tomorrow), so Daniel expected the graduation to be long. However, the speakers kept things concise, and with only about 340 graduates participating in the ceremony, it only took about 35 minutes to get through all the names. I had planned for a long haul and had my kindle and an audiobook all ready to go to quell the boredom, but I only ended up reading a few pages. 

After we were done with the official portion of graduation, we retired to Daniel and Tawni’s apartment for lunch followed by a copious amount of Aggie ice cream. Tawni’s parents and her youngest sister drove down from Idaho for the occasion and her two other sisters, both of whom live in Logan, came as well. It was so nice to visit with them on a day that was a bit slower than a wedding day! Unfortunately, Kevin and I were short on time as Malia needed us back home in time to help with her Arena scheduling for school next year. So, our visit was short. But I suspect there will be more occasions over the years to get to know Tawni’s family a bit better.

Now that Daniel has completed his undergraduate work, he will begin preparing to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which is basically a certification showing that he does indeed have the skills necessary to work as an engineer. He has been submitting job applications throughout this last year, and now that he is officially done with homework, he is going to lean into the job search. Tawni is gainfully employed so they will stay in Logan for now, but that is not their long-term plan. However, Daniel doesn’t know exactly what is next. It all depends on where the work takes him. He and Tawni are not only open to moving wherever they need to, but they also have a desire to live somewhere other than Utah. So, there may well be adventures in their future. The sky’s the limit and Daniel would love to be in a job that focuses on the broad expanse of the heavens. And I hope and pray that he will have that opportunity. 

Another Ending

Over the past four years, Nathan has been taking organ lessons at USU. It is one of those things that he does for the joy, not because he needs the credits to graduate. During that time, we have been able to drive to Logan to attend a number of his end of semester organ recitals. Yesterday was another trip north to attend Nathan’s last on-campus organ recital. He does get to play at Temple Square one more time and he is doing a mini senior recital of his very own a couple weeks after graduation so we aren’t done listening him play some big organs, but it was the last opportunity to meet his teachers and give a big thank you to them for helping him develop a skill that makes him so very happy. It was also an opportunity to take all our college kiddos to dinner and spend some time with them. Neither Daniel nor Nathan have full-time jobs yet, but I know that they are looking all over and will go where the work takes them. That means our short jaunts up to visit them may very well become long drives that necessitate taking vacation time. So, it was nice to be able to spend a few hours will all my crew sans Matthew. Of course, once Matthew gets home, there will be reasons for Logan trips again, but by then the others will likely be elsewhere…

Home and Away

With both Daniel and Nathan attending USU and Kevin and Matthew attending most home BYU football games, when BYU played USU in Logan last Saturday night, it seemed like a good time for Kev and Matthew to take a little road trip. With my dad along for the ride and the game, they drove up in time for dinner with Nathan. The marching band played at halftime so not only did they get to see the game, they had the opportunity to see Daniel march. With friends and roommates joining him in the student section, even Nathan has been enjoying football season

  

As for Malia and I, we were the only two who had a decent night's sleep. All my boys are pretty tired today, but they had a good time so in their opinions, it was worth it.