Kevin has several invisible disabilities
and wasn't sure what he wanted to do after high school.
He tried different kinds of work, warehouse construction and painting.
But he knew he wanted to advance and go deeper as a builder.
After several years in the work world, he decided to try college.
He started really exploring and saw arrow's pointing toward a life
as an engineer.
I am a systems engineer at Northrop Grumman.
I design satellites and I'm really excited because I'm in a rotation program
which allows me to change jobs within the company from year to year.
And they have all sorts of things from designing rockets
to launch systems
and space stuff, air stuff, really cool stuff that I'm excited about.
So systems engineering you associate with
all the different
pieces and parts of the entire whole.
And you basically meet with other engineers that are all working
everyone has their own like, you know, black box of stuff.
So you have to talk with each other to make sure the stuff in your black box
will be okay
communicating with power
data
mass and everything.
And everyone communicates between each other
and the satellite's able to fulfill its mission basically.
I love to work.
I love to like be a part of a team.
I love to contribute to something that I couldn't do on my own.
I mean, that's outside of
I guess, just having a job to to live off of.
But I think I'm someone who really enjoys
just doing amazing things that really show up in the world.
After I graduated high school I didn't really have any big plans.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do.
So I kind of just I got a job.
I worked at a warehouse at the Xcel Energy Center
where the Minnesota Wild hockey team plays.
Which was a really cool experience
I really enjoyed it.
It gave me a chance to kind of be an adult and learn how to live on my own
support myself and kind of learn all of the little things that go along with it.
I did a lot of construction.
I was a carpenter, I was a mason, I was a painter.
Little handyman things here and there just on my own.
I wanted more.
I loved building things.
So that was one thing that I felt kind of limited.
I wanted to, like, be more technical in the things I was doing.
There was a lot of arrows that were kind of pointing me to going back to school.
I started reading a lot more textbooks from high school and college and
and that were like college level textbooks.
But they were fascinating me
and I just really enjoyed learning.
I realized that
I wanted to be an engineer and I was going to be an engineer no matter what.
I kind of always had a lot of ideas just that I would keep to myself
like just little things
like inventions that I'd like to work on on my own.
And at a certain point I realized
I just didn't know what to do to develop things.
I didn't know what to do, how to build things and certain technical things
even though I'd like invent part by part something.
And that was another inclination that I was like
I know I'm not going to learn this doing carpentry.
I knew that I had a bigger dream.
I knew I wanted to do more.
So I looked for opportunity and I found it.
I went to college starting a community college
and then into the University of Minnesota.
I got very involved in extracurricular activities
like the Small Satellite Research Program at the U of M
where we research different ideas for things that require
satellites to conduct research on which is really cool.
And so that was
one of the things I was on the team that actually sent up
Minnesota's first satellite into space which was which is really awesome.
That's kind of one of the big things that being on my resumé was what got me
the interview and the job at Northrop Grumman where I work now.
I think of almost everyone as a mentor
just because there's so much to learn everywhere like no matter how smart anyone is,
like no matter how smart anyone is there's still more knowledge to learn.
So I try to learn as much as I can but I never used to be as smart as I am.
I mean, it's kind of weird to say
but I'm like almost like a rocket scientist basically.
More recently I've had lots of mentors and people that
have been so helpful to me and programs that have helped that
I feel like it's my duty to to give back because it's just changed my life.
Learning and discovery of skills and interests
is a lifelong journey.
Kevin was so ready to return to learning after a stretch in the workforce
and realized engineering and robotics were his path
through reaching out and taking advantage of disability resources at his college.
Kevin found invaluable support and mentorship.
Working one on one with a mentor led to a job fair
and a career he now has as a systems engineer who designs satellites with Northrop Grumman.
Grateful for all the support he's found on his path
Kevin now spends much of his free time giving back and supporting others
who have the same invisible disabilities that he once struggled with.