NEW BERN – Craven Community College's (Craven CC) 2022 NC State Mechanical Engineering Systems (MES) graduates will present an overview of their year-long capstone design project and celebrate the program's 10-year anniversary on Tuesday, May 3 at 1:30 p.m. in room 128 of the STEM Center on the Havelock campus.
This year's project was to design a device to allow the H53 and V22 aircraft to be transported within the depot while the landing gear is uninstalled for rework. There will be 17 local MES seniors showcasing their work. This is the largest class to go through the program to date.
In 2012, Josh Corbett, Jordan Lewis, Cliff Gutherie, and Jon Denn graduated from the MES program. Ten years later, 75 local students have graduated from NC State without leaving the Craven Community College campus, and 91% of these graduates were hired locally. The three original graduates will be in attendance for this year's capstone projects and 10-year celebration.
"As we gather for the 10th anniversary of MES graduates, we will celebrate how this collaborative community effort has impacted the lives of its 75 graduates," said Dr. Bill Fortney, Eastern NC Regional Director of Engineering. "Many of these graduates would not be engineers today without the NC State and Craven Community College partnership."
The unique partnership between Craven Community College and NC State University allows students to earn a BS in mechanical engineering systems without ever leaving the Craven Community College Havelock campus.