Tamerate Tadesse is a SCADA automation engineer but started his career as an airport taxi driver.
“I like to talk to people, I like to ask questions,” says Tadesse, a 2015 electrical engineering graduate. One day, Tadesse gave Peter Desloge, chairman and CEO of Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co., a ride to his home.
After seeing Tadesse’s adapted laptop charger, Desloge inquired about Tadesse’s hobbies and plans for the future. Tadesse told Desloge he has always enjoyed fixing things, especially electronics. Desloge encouraged Tadesse to pursue engineering, and even shared some of his own experience with his cab driver.
“Something clicked in my mind,” he says. “It was kind of a miracle for me.” The chance experience encouraged Tadesse to further his education and study engineering at S&T. He still keeps Desloge’s business card in his wallet for good luck.
Share This Story
Spark a Memory?
Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).
Sarah (Lewey) and Leslie “Les” McDaniel
When Sarah (Lewey) and Leslie “Les” McDaniel met in 2013 at a local bar called the Grotto, it was all…
Houston, we have a slight case of nausea
NASA referred to its KC-125 aircraft as the “weightless wonder” because it carried college students and their experiments into micro-gravity…
A civil war fortress
As the Civil War raged on, the Union Army, following a defeat at Wilson’s Creek in southwest Missouri, fell back…
An out-of-this-world championship
How does a team go from worst to first in a matter of just a few years? Missouri S&T’s Mars…
Tabitha (Fiske) and Brian Locke
Tabitha (Fiske) and Brian Locke met in December 2009 when she dropped by a friend’s room to get help with…
Building a legacy of mechanical engineering
A registered professional engineer, John Toomey, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering in 1949 and 1951, founded…