UNDER THIRTY - Society of Manufacturing Engineers

Jesse PaschallAge: 20StudentAllendale, MIJesse Paschall won the 2011 SME EducationFoundation Family Scholarship after graduatingmagna cum laude from East Grand RapidsHigh School. After starting college as a mechanicalengineering student at North Carolina StateUniversity in Raleigh, NC, Jesse decided to transfer forhis sophomore year at Grand Valley State University tobe closer to his family in the Grand Rapids, MI, area.During his first year in college, Jesse wrote a columnin the May 2012 issue of Manufacturing Engineering’s“SME Speaks” section which detailed the lessons helearned as a first-year student in engineering.A grandson of Marcus B. Crotts, FSME, CMfgE, PE,SME’s president in 2002, Jesse has a three-axis CNCrouter that he uses to buildparts. As a high schoolstudent, Jesse used AutodeskInventor to create3D models of machinesand mechanical components, including a diesel engine,steam locomotive valve gear, and a Peterbilt truck.Working in manufacturing fascinated Jesse fromthe time he took his first drafting classes, and he’s stillinterested in building components, particularly those fordiesel engines. When he moved to Michigan and firstsaw the drafting and technology classes at East GrandRapids High, “that kind of just made my eyes light up.I was so excited about that,” Jesse recalled. “It was afour-year program for the drafting design and technology,and I started out a year behind, but I was just very,very natural, because this is what I’d been doing myentire life, just never really put a name to it.”"I’ve always wanted to manufacture dieselengines. ... I want to have my ownmanufacturing business."UNDER THIRTYJesse eventually moved up a year in the program tofinish it on time and he won a scholarship through theschool for his work on CAD designs of diesel enginesand other automotive components.Jesse currently still uses his CNC router for makingparts, as well as having access to the manufacturingequipment at GVSU’s engineering building. He’sinterested in a career in manufacturing for the automotive/transportationindustry, and perhaps starting hisown company in the future like his grandfather MarcusCrotts did with his engineering business, Crotts & SaundersEngineering based in Winston-Salem, NC.“I kind of want to follow that, not necessarily takeover that business but eventually start my own businesskind of the sameway he did. I’d really liketo start a manufacturingcompany,” Jesse said.“I’ve always wanted tomanufacture diesel engines, but the more I kind oflearn about that, that it probably would not be veryrealistic in the near future—maybe diesel engine components—allI know is I want to have my own manufacturingbusiness.”Grad school also could be on the horizon for Jesse,and he hasn’t ruled out joining the military. “It’s somethingI always wanted to do since I could talk,” Jessesaid of the military. “My grandfather was in the AirForce. My uncle was a career Marine pilot. And that’salways interested me. That’s not kind of set in stone oranything, it’s just one of those things I’d love to do, andyou only get one chance to do it.” METHIRTY UNDER THIRTY PROFILES30 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | July 2013