June 17, 2021
By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer
He’s been interested in engineering since he was a kid, Cory Schwarze says, and Roane State’s new mechatronics program on the community college’s Roane County campus has been perfect for him.
Schwarze, 18, was part of the inaugural Middle College mechatronics class at the flagship campus and just wrapped up his first year. He graduated from Roane County High School this spring and will be returning to Roane State’s mechatronics program next academic year.
That’s a bit different from Roane State’s traditional Middle College academic route, where high school students take college classes in the afternoons as high school juniors and seniors, and receive a high school diploma at the same time they obtain an associate’s degree from the community college.
Schwarze, the son of Scott and Anna Schwarze of Kingston, said he took engineering classes earlier at the high school and enjoyed them. He was asked of his interest in the Middle College program after taking the college’s dual enrollment curriculum. In that course, Roane State educators go to high schools to teach, and students receive both high school and college credits.
“They (Roane State employees) brought over portable equipment for us to work on,” he said. His instructors were Dr. Robert Harrison, who is now retired from Roane State, and Roane County High teacher Loftin Gerberding.
The new Middle College mechatronics program at the college’s Roane County campus “covers a lot more topics” and features more equipment, Schwarze said.“I love the hands-on parts of it,” he added. There are also conventional programing classes, “and I still enjoy those.”
His Roane State teachers were Tom Lewiston, Guilherme Garcia and program director Gordon Williams. “They are all phenomenal teachers and I love their classes,” Schwarze said. “They really encourage us to make sure we understand everything that’s going on.”
“Cory has been one of our leaders in this first cohort of Middle College Mechatronics students from Roane County Schools,” Williams said. “He is an outstanding young man, and I look forward to great things from him in the future.”
After he receives his Roane State associate’s degree in mechatronics in the spring of 2022, Schwarze intends to enroll at Tennessee Tech to seek a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
Then, he hopes to land a job at either Oak Ridge National Laboratory or an area manufacturer like DENSO.
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