profile STUDENT
STUDENT PROFILE: David Thomas
Precision Machining Pascagoula College & Career Technical Institute
“From machine shop, I understand how things work. Everything that surrounds us right now, in some way, shape, or form, has been manufactured. We would not be the society today that we are if it wasn’t for manufacturing or machining.” Tell me a little about yourself and why you began taking machine courses. I have a unique story. I was born in the Philippines, and when I was nine years old, I moved with my mom to the US where my dad was already living. My older brother started working at a machine shop, and I was somewhat fascinated by this machinist trade. My dad would always tell me to think about the economy and that one of the last people to go out of work is a machinist. So I’ve always considered it a good path to follow, but that was back in elementary school, so I didn’t really know a lot about it. Then suddenly, years later in high school, I found out there was a machinist program, so I thought I would sign up for it. In what way does your music and arts experience help you in your machining classes, and in what way does your machining experience help you in your music and arts classes? They sort of all meld together. I’ve won several art shows and created many T-shirt designs, including the SkillsUSA shirt design for Mississippi. Also, I play the tuba in band and one of my main goals before I finish the machine program is to create my own mouthpiece for my tuba. Also, we use a lot of trig and other math in what we do in machine shop. This is a math-oriented class, so the math and machine shop go well together. With so many talents and passions, do you have a favorite or one you plan to pursue after high school? With all of the areas I’m in, I really like them, and I try to ration my time to be able to do each one. I kind of build experiences with each one and hop from one to the other depending on my mood. It’s hard to say, “Hey, I’m going to do this one thing and make a career out of it for the rest of my life” when I might want to do other things too.
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CONNECTIONS Spring 2014