| |
Among his childhood memories, Scott Bennett remembers taking
things apart – cameras, doors, computers – and putting them back
together.
“My mom would often come home from work and find the doors off
their hinges,” says Bennett, who at age 18 is an ACCEL dual
enrollment student at both Heritage High School in Ringgold and
Dalton State’s main campus.
His interest in “how things work” is so strong that when he
graduates from both Dalton State and HHS next May, he’ll
transfer to Georgia Tech to complete a bachelor’s degree in
either mechanical or aerospace engineering.
The whole engineering process is something that “is really easy
for me,” says Bennett. “I can see it, conceptualize how to do
it; I can actually see it happen. When I was little I was always
taking things apart. I’ve been physically ‘shocked’ in the
process – I don’t know how many times.”
Before Bennett enrolled at Dalton State as an ACCEL student, he
excelled in drafting and honors/AP mathematics classes at
Ringgold High School, and he participated in Academic Bowl and
the Academic Decathlon.
At the beginning of his junior year, he was to enter Catoosa
County’s new high school, Heritage High, but wanted to get a
jump start on his post-secondary career.
“I didn’t feel like high school was the right place for me,”
recalls Bennett, who says that he had achieved a good academic
record in high school and had the support of his mother in
pursuing this accelerated path. “Even though I was enrolled in
mainly honors classes, it didn’t feel challenging enough for
me.” |
|
So at the age of 16, Bennett began commuting from his home in
Ringgold to Dalton State, taking a full load of core courses
including English, American History, Economics, and
Pre-calculus.
“I have loved my college courses,” says Bennett, who noted that
the transition between taking classes which relied heavily on
busy work with those consisting primarily of a lecture format
was not overwhelming, just “different.”
“I wouldn’t trade my classes here for the world. My math
classes, the whole calculus series, and chemistry have all been
fun. The rigor of classes has been great here, and I’ve met a
number of dynamic teaching faculty at Dalton State.”
When he arrived in the fall of 2008, Bennett admits that he was
a little apprehensive because “everyone was so much older than I
was. But after the first month or so, it wasn’t that big an
issue.” In fact, he says, he’s made friends easily on the Dalton
State campus and the age difference has not turned into an
issue.
Bennett’s dream is to one day work for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
“I’m really intrigued by the infinite possibilities that NASA
creates through space exploration and through their research.
What they do at NASA betters all of our lives and improves
technology.”
Other dream jobs, Bennett says, would be working for the
American military doing research or working for a mechanical
engineering firm. But whatever career path he chooses, Bennett
hopes to be able to teach college-level mathematics part-time
once he earns his advanced degree, a doctorate, in either
mechanical or aerospace engineering. “One of the things I’ve
enjoyed most about Dalton State has been unofficially tutoring
people in math. If my classmates need help, they ask me, and I
take them over to the library and help them. That gives me a
great deal of satisfaction.” |
|
