Notable
In my life, I have had a few experiences that I thought were notable. Sometimes they are school experiences, others are from working.
Growing up, we had a carpentry workshop in the garage. I started out using the hand tools, but worked my way up to the power tools as I grew older and more experienced. I made anything I could think of, from toys to play with, to things for Boy Scouts. This prepared me for the carpentry classes I took in college that dealt with home construction.
Even before I took a plumbing class in college, I had worked on plumbing systems. I had helped install our home sprinkler system, but later when it needed repairs (our dogs dug it up in several places), I fixed it one day when I was home alone and bored. This was another learning experience that prepared me for latter college classes. When taking a college horticulture class, I was able to show the other students how to install the irrigation system for the two greenhouses. All this made taking a plumbing class pretty easy, so I was able to explore more complicated aspects of residential and industrial plumbing, like building codes…
My favorite welding class project was making a working valve-train demo model that the Marine Diesel instructor could use. But I also had fun learning to weld in confined spaces, as well as while hanging upside down. I was the only student who would climb into the welding booth, and I would always volunteer for any special class projects, like installing a rain shield over the outside scrap metal cage.
In a college writing class, I chose to write a paper on Prison education in NC. If we expect prisoners to become rehabilitated, do they not need education so they can do something else besides what landed them in prison? The information was not available in any one place, and even prison staff did not know what was available at other prisons. The information on prison websites was very often out of date and incorrect. So I wrote this paper with all the information I could find, but COVID has changed things. I am in the process of updating this paper, collecting information directly for colleges and universities, and expanding to cover every state. So watch this space for an update!
I once was hired as a Chapel Clerk because the chapel served multiple religions and I had taken a college World Religions class. One of my more interesting responsibilities was to develop, edit, and publish a monthly 16+ page Chapel Newsletter. It included articles from members of all the different religions that used the chapel, and promoted greater understanding amongst the diverse people who used the chapel.