Class of: 2015

Major: Engineering ScienceDavid Davis, Class of 2015

 
“CCM professors take time to work with students individually to ensure they understand the material.”

David Davis’ passion for engineering was sparked as a child in Pará, Brazil. On his family’s farm, he was responsible for a wide range of tasks, including helping with the cattle and repairing machinery. On the farm, he and his father also worked together to build a dam and construct a hydroelectric turbine to provide electricity to their home and land.

“We calculated the necessary dimensions of the spillway to withstand flooding,” he recalls. “My dad’s problem solving mindset and hard work ethic shaped how I would approach my studies in school.”

The experience set in motion his desire to learn even more and to travel thousands of miles away to County College of Morris (CCM), where he began his formal higher education in earnest.

As the result of the firm foundation he received at CCM, Davis found himself recruited by a major engineering company even before he finished his bachelor’s degree at Rutgers. He credits the professors at CCM for his success.

“CCM professors take time to work with students individually to ensure they understand the material. I really missed not having that close connection to my professors at the other schools I attended,” he says.

In high school, Davis knew he wanted to study mechanical engineering in the United States. His path to get there, however, was not a simple one.

At 17, Davis began at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC. Unfortunately, he soon discovered that school did not have the engineering program he desired. He moved to Kinnelon where several of his siblings lived, and when his sister told him that CCM had a great reputation he visited the campus.

“I met with Professor Venny Fuentes, who convinced me that CCM offers an education just as good as, if not better than, a university,” says Davis of the chair of the Department of Engineering Technologies and Engineering Science.

Davis received his associate degree in engineering science two years later, and experienced a seamless transfer to Rutgers the following semester. “The transfer process from CCM to Rutgers was perfect,” he recalls. “All the classes that I took transferred.” He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering two years later.

During his undergraduate years, he gained an internship with the New Jersey Space Grant Consortium, a NASA funded fellowship. He also gained another internship where he worked with a licensed mechanical engineer, drafting mechanical layouts using AutoCAD software.

Before he finished his undergraduate education, he had built a resume that drew the notice of engineering companies. The Timken Company pursued him while he was still a senior at Rutgers after finding his resume online. “A few days after the interview, they made me an offer as a Process Design Engineer in South Carolina,” There he designs the process to manufacture large tapered roller bearings and creates programs to automate those processes.

Davis is also enrolled in a rigorous master’s program at Johns Hopkins University. “I am studying mechanical engineering with a focus in robotics.” Timken is paying for the majority of his master’s degree.

In the future, he aspires to work in engineering research and development.

To Davis, CCM was more than a place to take his first engineering classes. The institution gave him the confidence and knowledge to succeed for the rest of his life. “I highly recommend CCM. Students receive a world-class education at a very reasonable cost.”