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).
Gregory McClain: education’s key to success
Gregory McClain, who graduated in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering management and...
Making the perfect snacks
Frito-Lay’s Topeka, Kansas, plant operates 24 hours a day, so while most of us are sleeping, Catherine Swift, a 2010…
Rebecca and Joe Hawkes-Cates
Rebecca and Joe Hawkes-Cates met in 2009 while volunteering at a Miner football game. “We handed out fruit and water…
Megan (Jekel) and Jonathan Pardeck
Megan (Jekel), a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, and Jonathan Pardeck, a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity, met through…
Matthew Harris and Grace Lupo
During a biostatistics lab in the fall of 2017, Matthew Harris saw Grace Lupo sitting by herself and invited her…
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…