Graduate Profile: Sam Simon – Future Aerospace Engineer

Sam SimonIntroducing Sam Simon, MWCC and Pathways College Experience Class of 2020!

Sam came to MWCC as an early college student under the Pathways College Experience Dual Enrollment program. A bright student who excelled in math and science, he was bored at the small regional school he attended. His high school was small enough that it had no honors classes and only three advanced placement courses.

Advanced Placement (AP), if you are unfamiliar, are classes high school students take, at the completion of which they are able to sit for an AP exam. The AP exam scores are excepted at many colleges and universities as credit that the student would otherwise be required to take. This can save students between hundreds and thousands of dollars, depending upon their college choice.

How did you get to MWCC?

Sam, like many of our early college students, made the decision to pursue dual enrollment on his own. Wanting to show his parents that he was serious about attending college as a high school student.

Fast forward, Sam has enjoyed his MWCC Pathways Early College Experience. He has reveled in the more advanced mathematics available and found likeminded friends to enjoy the experience. He even opted to do an independent study in symbolic logic as his honors program capstone.

What’s next?

Sam, who is well known to MWCC faculty and staff as “the one in the NASA shirt”, has his sights set on an aerospace engineering degree. Since we spoke with him, he has committed to his top choice, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach where he was accepted into the Aerospace Engineering program, with a presidential scholarship.

“Embry-Riddle accepted my application three days after I turned it in!” Sam smiled, “Immediately they followed up with the scholarship. Twenty-nine of my credits are transferring so I’m going to be jumping right into fluid mechanics, high-level physics, and linear algebra.”

Sam has his sights firmly set on a career with a private space company like Space-X and is interested in out of atmosphere technologies, especially alternative technologies to make space travel more efficient and accessible.

“I’m in complete agreement with Elon Musk when he says that in order to ensure the survival of the species, we need to become multi-planetary” Sam stated.

We can’t wait to see how high this MWCC grad will fly!

If you or a student you know might be interested in Pathways College Experience, you can learn more and sign up for an information session on the Pathways page.