SPIROL Scholarship

I graduated with Honors in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2019 and commissioned as an Active Duty Second Lieutenant in the Signal Corps branch of the United States Army. From there I attended the Signal Basic Officer Leaders Course (SBOLC) in Fort Gordon, Georgia. SBOLC is an 18 week leadership course focused on preparing newly commissioned officers to be leaders in their respective military occupational specialty. During my time at SBOLC I received the Kilbourne Award, a student nominated, cadre selected award to recognize the student who truly leads from the front. Additionally, I was the Distinguished Honor Graduate of my class finishing the course ranked #1 of 73 students. Following SBOLC I was selected to attend Ranger School, the Army’s toughest course and premier small unit tactics and leadership school. I graduated Ranger School in April of 2020 and was relocated to Fort Bragg, NC where I currently serve as a Platoon Leader in the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

As I reflect on my time in college and my short career in the Army, I believe the support and experience I received as a SPIROL Scholarship recipient was instrumental in my success as a student and time as an Officer. Coming out of high school, my internship with SPIROL was my first exposure to the real world. It introduced me to the standard and competency that is expected when working for a high functioning organization. Whether I was filling out spreadsheets in production or working with the sales team, I could always count on the people around me to answer questions, provide feedback and make me feel like a member of the team.

I have been with the company Jensen Hughes since 2016, and full time at this engineering firm starting in 2017 out of their Warwick, RI location while finishing my master’s degree. I work in the fire protection engineering field designing fire alarm and sprinkler systems, conducting life safety and code assessments, and doing 3rd party special inspections and commissioning of fire and life safety systems.

In my current role, I have had the opportunity to travel around the country for many projects. I am hoping to also expand from design work into forensics and fire investigation projects in the near future!

Since starting at Jensen Hughes, I have been very involved in college recruiting for our internships and entry level positions. I also worked with the then-president of the company to revamp and streamline the internship program at a corporate level, working with office directors and managers around the world. Recently, outside of technical work, I have been focusing on learning business development practices and furthering my project management skills.

I just graduated from Northeastern University (BS/MS) in December and am about to start my first full-time position as a product development engineer at Globus Medical in Methuen, MA. I’ll be a part of the imaging, navigation and robotic division working on the development of surgical robotics. I’m really excited for this position because I will be involved in all steps of the product development process from concept development to testing to FDA submission!

When reflecting on my time at Northeastern, one of the biggest pieces of advice I would have for incoming college students would be to always keep yourself open to new opportunities. And don’t just wait for them to come to you, but actively seek them out! From my co-ops, to volunteering with different organizations, to intramural sports, I’ve had a lot of different experiences throughout college. I didn’t stick with all of them, but each one helped me either gain a skill or learn more about what types of things I was looking for in my life and career. College is the best time to explore what you enjoy and what’s important to you, so don’t forget to push yourself to try new things and to build on your skills outside of the classroom!

I serve as the Engineering Director at PowerBuilt Material Handling in Bellefontaine Ohio.  We specialize in automation and material handling equipment geared towards the automotive markets, and serve most automotive customers East of the Mississippi.  We have designed, manufactured, and installed equipment that installs car doors, wheels, seats, subframes, headliners, and many more.  One of our most recent projects was a device that automatically picked up an FEM, and drove in-between two moving bodies on the assembly line.  The operators then used the device to install the FEM within an 0.5mm tolerance.  Trailing that equipment, we installed a system with X16 torque gun tools that lowered down into place to tighten all the fastening hardware for the part.  Once completed, the tightening system retracted, and the FEM device escaped the body, and drove off the line automatically to go and pick the next part.  This system accommodated X4 different models and has less than a 2-minute cycle time.  For reference, FEM is the front-end module of a vehicle – it contains the radiator, headlights, bumper, cooling fans, and other intercoolers used on the vehicle.

During college, I had a variety of internships including one at the SPIROL location in Stow, Ohio that sparked my initial interest in manufacturing.  After college, I joined Whirlpool Corporation's Manufacturing Leadership Development Program.  I spent 3.5 years rotating through different roles, plants and locations within Whirlpool.  I worked in Iowa, Ohio and Oklahoma in engineering and operations roles at manufacturing plants that build fridges, dryers and oven ranges.  I graduated from the program in December of 2020 and started a new position within Whirlpool Corporation as a Senior Quality Engineer for one of the assembly lines at our refrigerator plant in Amana, IA. I am now living in Iowa City, IA with my boyfriend.  I am a member of Whirlpool's Women's Network and also a mentor in OSU's AWARES program which focuses on retaining women in STEM fields.  I also mentor students for an OSU Industrial Engineering course.  Receiving the SPIROL Scholarship throughout college was an immense help in reducing the amount of loans I needed to take, allowing me to pay off my student loans just 2 years after I graduated college.

Receiving the SPIROL Scholarship over the course of my college years greatly impacted my future, not only financially and intellectually, but started me on my career path in the field.  And for that, I am greatly appreciative.

I began work at SPIROL CT following my graduation in May of 2019 as an Engineering Trainee.  In January of 2020 I transitioned into my current role as a Quality Continuous Improvement Engineer working in the Quality Assurance Department.  With the guidance of our Quality Manager, I have developed my knowledge in lean manufacturing concepts and am able to have my arm in many areas of the company.  As many of SPIROL’s customers are more and more concerned about the cleanliness of their assemblies, one of the major projects that I accomplished during my time in QA was the research, development, and implementation of SPIROL’s cleanliness program.  This was an extremely involved project that took the collaboration of multiple Team members to prove our processes through facts and data.

If I take a look back on my years at RWU, I can honestly say that I met some of the greatest people, many who I still keep in touch with today.  I was surrounded by some of the most knowledgeable and helpful professors. Some of my most memorable community service efforts in college were my work in the school systems of Jamaica and bringing clean drinking water to a school system in Ecuador.  If college taught me one thing it was, if you keep an open mind and put in the work and effort you can accomplish all your goals.

I’ve spent the past four years working as a software engineering consultant for a large professional services firm. Most of my time has been spent working on cyber security projects where I’ve been responsible for building user interfaces that are used by threat detection specialists. 

I am changing roles in the coming weeks and I will be joining a software company in Boston as a senior front-end engineer. I will be responsible for user interface development of a new suite of applications.  This role will also provide me the opportunity to mentor new engineers and help them with their career goals.

I graduated from North Carolina State University in May of 2020 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. I now live in Boston and work as a transportation engineer for Howard Stein Hudson working on various construction projects around the city. During college I held internships with SPIROL, Rhode Island Department of Transportation, and Stantec’s Raleigh, NC office. Throughout my time in college, I was able to engage in many different activities to enrich my education. I was able to study abroad in Australia, travel to Rwanda with the Women and Minority Engineering Programs, and Canada with the American Concrete Institute.