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 Student earns scholarship for conference

  
   IV Leader Staff, Oct. 19, 2006

    An Illinois Valley Community College graduate, Jeff Grabill has been awarded a scholarship to attend and participate in the National Science Foundation and the American Association of Community Colleges conference in Washington, D.C. Grabill of Princeton, gave a presentation about his experiences in the “Making Industry Meaningful In College” project at IVCC.
    The project is partially funded by an NSF grant. The Advanced Technology Education Principal Investigators Conference, Oct. 18-20, brings together representatives from government and industry, NSF grant recipients and students or alumni of grant programs. Grabill participated in a MIMIC team in spring 2006.
    He is an FMS Technician at Ingersoll-Rand LCN Closers in Princeton, where he has been employed since 1979. Grabill was selected for the conference on the basis of an essay outlining his goals for attending the conference and the impact the MIMIC project had on him. Grabill was on a MIMIC team with electronics students, business students and another engineering design student.
    The team simulated an industrial company, working together to design, manufacture, market and sell a product. “Jeff exemplifies what MIMIC is all about,” said Dorene Perez, Program Coordinator of CAD/CAE and a MIMIC instructor. “He became as enthusiastic about the project as the instructors are. He’s a great team player and good role model for the younger and less experienced students.”
    Grabill called the conference a “wonderful opportunity” and said he felt honored to represent IVCC and MIMIC. “My experiences in engineering design at IVCC, and especially MIMIC, have been life changing for me,” he said. Grabill, who had attended IVCC earlier, returned two years ago with a goal of earning an associate degree.
    He described the last two years at IVCC as “exciting, very rewarding, and very fulfilling”; so fulfilling that he is currently studying toward a B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering Technology at Bradley University in Peoria. He is continuing to serve on the MIMIC Advisory Committee and on the Learning Ladder Early Childhood Development Center Advisory Board.
    He is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, honors society and on the Dean’s List for two years. A graduate of Malden High School, Grabill began working at LCN shortly after graduation. He and his wife Shelly have been married for 15 years. They have a four-year-old daughter, Kaitlynn.
    “I have a drive inside me to set an example for my daughter that no matter what, it is never too late to chase your dreams,” Grabill said. Perez, the Principal Investigator for the NSF grant, Co-Principal Investigators Jim Gibson and Rose Marie Lynch, and grant evaluator Sue Caley Opsal also attended the conference and presented a showcase on MIMIC. Gibson is program coordinator of electronics; Lynch is a communications professor; and Opsal is an anatomy/physiology professor.

 

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