Alumni Updates
Josh Weiss
I’m currently majoring in Aerospace Engineering at UW-Madison. I am on the Formula SAE team where I specialize in aerodynamic components and composite structures.
This summer I will be interning at Raytheon in MD Massachusetts for their mechanical products division.
Most recent news is that Josh has been hired by Space-X to work in the Starlink Division.
Maggie Colwell
Hi, I’m Margaret Colwell. Since graduating from Hartford in 2022, I have continued to be a part of the aviation community. I am pursing a Bachelor of Science in Human Factors Psychology with a minor in Aviation Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I currently work for the Safety Science Department on Campus as a Student Assistant. I help to manage the ergonomics lab, accident investigation lab, industrial hygiene lab, and machine lab. Furthermore, I am a part of a research project looking at TSA, air traffic safety, and more in terms of human error caused by a mismatch in design and human performance. If you have any questions or are looking for advice, feel free to reach out!
Rebecca Colwell
- Graduated from MSOE with a B.S in Industrial Engineering.
- I have accepted a full time job offer at GE HealthCare in their Operations Management Leadership Program.
- I worked with the Aurora West Allis Medical Center on increasing throughout in their Sterile Processing Department for my Senior Design Project
- I had an adventure this summer and moved to Salt Lake City for an internship. I learned A LOT about being prepared for hiking.
- I visited 3 national parks and am excited to continue visiting them in my free time.
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Garrett McFarren
After graduating in 2023 I opted to continue my education at Universitat Ramon Llull in
Barcelona, Spain, where I'm studying foreign language education. As a result, I now
speak three languages, English, Spanish and Catalan, something that's been extremely
useful in meeting all kinds of people, from my teammates on my university's Rugby
team, to the masters at my dojang where I continue to practice taekwondo.
While not in Spain, I work at an incredible summer camp in the Poconos called Tyler
Hill. I'm a general counselor there, spending my every waking (and sleeping) moment
with up to fourteen, ten year-old boys from all around the United States. Here too I've
made a ton of international friends, including my bunk co-counselors from Wales and
Scotland, as well as other division counselors from countries like Ireland, France,
Mexico, Colombia, Poland and South Africa. As someone who wants to be an educator
in a city as notoriously international as Barcelona, I think both the interaction with
people from different countries as well as spending so much time around children will
aid me greatly in my future as a teacher.
Because I'm so near to so many European countries, I've been doing a lot of travelling
in my free time recently too, having been to Germany, Andorra, France, Portugal, Italy
and the Vatican in the past year. In the future I have plans for a trip to Croatia, Austria,
Monaco, Germany and Ireland to meet up with the international students I've gotten to
know during my time in Barcelona as well as the counselors I met while working at Tyler
Hill over last summer.
Throughout the madness of learning languages, going to university, practicing both
rugby and taekwondo, as well as working in the Poconos, I've also managed to finish
my manuscript for my science fiction novel, Ego Death, and am currently going through
the (very painstaking!) publication process.
I have a lot on my plate, but I love everything in front of me and I can't wait to see what's
in store for me next.
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Richard Glidden
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Flight Training Experience: Flight training is hard – obviously. There’s hours of expensive flight lessons, lots of studying, tests, etc. Flying takes a lot of work to do well or even understand, requiring you to not just be able to fly an airplane but to understand law, weather, work with A TC, shoot approaches, and more. It can get really difficult, and there’s no good way to convey what difficult means until you begin flying yourself. Many
people told me it was going to take hard work and resilience and all that, but I didn’t really know what I
was getting into until I was well into my PPL. It’s not easy, but don’t get me wrong it’s also not some
impossible herculean task that only super smart people can accomplish. Almost anyone can get a PPL
(and other ratings/licenses) as long as they just stick with it, work hard enough, and don’t run out of
money.
I’ve been in aviation for about three years now, which really isn’t that long in the grand scheme of
things. I started flying a J3 Cub in 11th grade, and finished my private pilot’s license at the end of
highschool. I then went to Embry Riddle Daytona where I did my instrument rating which took about
seven months, and I’m now half way through a commercial rating as a college sophomore. While I don’t
think it gets easier until you start commercial, you do get a lot better at handling the training after PPL.
By instrument, you become adapted to the stress, and have a better idea of what you need to study and
how to go about that in an effective way – so in that way it gets easier. Aviation isn’t an easy field to be
in, but it is very rewarding.