Staff Writer

Graduates from Tech can go far in the career world. That’s the case for several Tech alumni, including a journalism major that carried a local business all the way to Tennessee and a mechanical engineering major who once worked for NASA. “My immediate plan was to move to Nashville, Tenn., and I actually moved there the night of my last final exam,” Steven Black, a 1994 Tech alumnus in journalism, said. Black said he originally planned to move to Nashville for the business and publicity side of the Christian and country music business, but realized that it was more about who you know than what you know. He eventually got a job working as the manager of The Gap, worked for Service Merchandise and later came back to Ruston as manager for Steeple’s Glen apartments. “While in Nashville, I had started managing rental property on the side,” Black said. “I did that for about a year and a half and then an opportunity came to work for Beehive.” Brent and Amy Bernard, founders of Beehive Jewelry in Ruston, were looking to open another store after the local branch became popular, Black said. “I was interested in Sevierville, Tenn., one of three towns next to the Smoky Mountains,” Black said. “We started planning the store in January of 2004, and it opened in November of 2004.” Black is the manager for Beehive Wholesale Factory Store, the retail division of Beehive Jewelry in Ruston. “Through Tech, I made good contacts that led to jobs short-term and long-term,” Black said. “I was also glad to get hands-on experience in my major field – journalism; that helped me to determine what career directions I wanted to go into.” Black advised graduating seniors to get a job and keep it for a while to see what path is right for a career. He said he looks for employees with real experience. “A degree says a lot of things, but it still doesn’t tell me if you can do the job,” Black said. “Good students don’t always make good employees and to those who have had a rough time in college, bad students often make good employees.” Kirk Blackwelder, a 2000 Tech alumnus in mechanical engineering, once worked for NASA in Houston, Tex., but is currently employed with Bell Helicopter Textron as the Product Mission Analyst within the Marketing Center of Excellence. “My job involves evaluating Bell’s competition and our customer’s needs, and using that information to develop our future products,” Blackwelder said. “I also provide technical analysis of our aircraft to our marketing and management teams.” Blackwelder’s plans were to work for Bell in the first place, but he ended up working in the space shuttle program with United Space Alliance in Houston. He said one year to the day after working with NASA, Bell called to offer him a job and he accepted. Blackwelder credits Tech’s department of mechanical engineering for helping him succeed in the career world. “[It] offers excellent training and preparation for the real world,” Blackwelder said. “Engineering graduates from Tech’s program are better equipped than most engineers from the ‘big name’ engineering schools.” He said hard work and persistence helped him achieve his goals, and he advised everyone to have the same attitude. “Pursue that job and be persistant,” Blackwelder said. “Find a career you enjoy and are intrigued by – especially one you look forward to every day.”