College Hosts Talk for Students Interested in Engineering Careers

On Sunday the College’s Office of Career Advisement sponsored a talk and Q&A for students who are considering a career in engineering. Leading the discussion were two local engineers — one civil, one mechanical, with extensive civilian and military experience — who shared their wisdom about how best to apply the benefits of a Catholic liberal education in the marketplace.

Adam WallachThe first speaker was Adam Wallach, a mechanical engineer and project manager at the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center in Port Hueneme, California, where he leads a team that specializes in designing systems for underwater submarine surveillance. Mr. Wallach holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and previously worked for Walt Disney Imagineering, designing show action equipment.

Ted KretschmerJoining Mr. Wallach was his retired predecessor at Port Hueneme, Ted Kretschmer, father of the College’s director of student services, Mark Kretschmer. In his 40-year career with the Navy, Mr. Kretschmer worked on projects ranging from the establishment of a research camp on the North Pole to the protection of U.S. nuclear-powered submarines. A two-time graduate of  the University of Notre Dame with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering, Mr. Kretschmer holds patents and patent disclosures related to ocean technology.

Over the course of the nearly two-hour meeting, Messrs. Wallach and Kretschmer shared their wealth of experience to help the students understand the wide variety of opportunities available in their profession as well as the lifecycle of a typical engineering project. Both professionals took questions from the students, offering their assistance and networking help as needed, and stressing the compatibility of the College’s liberal arts curriculum with careers in the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines.

“I see the TAC program, which focuses on analysis to find the truth and understand basic principles, to be very complementary with the training and characteristics of a good engineer,” said Mr. Kretschmer. “The engineer must deal with facts, not emotions, in solving problems, and so focuses on truth. Engineers often form teams to discuss the facts and propose solutions in a similar process to the College’s round-table approach, and practicing engineers must hold high ethical positions to meet the requirements of finding truth.”

When evaluating young engineers, Mr. Wallach added, he cares not so much that they immediately know how to solve a problem, “but that they are willing to open up a book — actually to admit what they don’t know, and then go figure it out, and that they are asking the right questions.” Consequently, he told the students, “I think that, because of the foundation that you have, you would end up being much better engineers than a lot of engineers who learn the recipe for how two pieces fit together without appreciating the bigger picture.”

The Engineering Talk was one of several such events that the Office of Career Advisement has planned for the academic year, including September’s talk for students interested in pursuing careers in mental health and October’s Career Discernment Workshop.