{"id":85439,"date":"2025-07-25T15:37:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/?p=85439"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T19:38:17","slug":"graduate-took-on-challenge-of-an-engineering-program-and-a-full-time-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/graduate-took-on-challenge-of-an-engineering-program-and-a-full-time-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate took on challenge of an engineering program and a full-time job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After high school, David O\u2019Connor realized that if he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer, he had to do it on his own. The college had to be affordable and close to work because he would need to not only pay tuition, but all living expenses too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balancing an engineering program and a full-time job is a monumental challenge. It requires dedication and sacrifices. But O\u2019Connor pushed through. \u201cWhen I first saw the movie Interstellar<\/em>, I instantly fell in love with aerospace engineering,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. \u201cThis combined with my previous interest in space engineering was my goal since I was 11. One day I want to work at NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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O’Connor and his fianc\u00e9e, who he credits as a major supporter of his<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To begin the journey to that goal, O\u2019Connor of West Warwick, Rhode Island, became an engineering student at the University of Rhode Island, while also working full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to being a self-supported student, he was unable to participate in any extracurriculars like student groups or sports at URI, even though in high school he was an all-state athlete and had offers to play multiple sports at different schools. He spent all his time either working or studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a full-time student from fall 2018 to fall 2020 and then took several part-time semesters. At one point, it wasn\u2019t enough, and O\u2019Connor left the program, unsure if he\u2019d ever see his dream come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was failing out of school due to working long hours and not having time to study for classes,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. The URI faculty and staff remained in touch, doing everything possible to get him back into the program. \u201cSomething special about URI is the willingness of the faculty and staff here to see you succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Academic Advisor for engineering Wynston Wilson (left) and David O’Connor in front of the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, he enrolled in Community College of Rhode Island and was able to achieve the GPA requirement for readmission to URI, enrolling in fall 2023 as a junior. He heavily credits the support of his academic advisor, Wynston Wilson<\/a>, for sticking with him and guiding him along the ups and downs. O\u2019Connor did 21 semesters over the course of seven years. \u201cHis guidance got me through some of the hardest times of my life. He helped me achieve my dream of graduating as an engineer,\u201d said O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After seven hard fought years, O\u2019Connor graduated with his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering<\/a> and a minor in physics this past May.<\/p>\n\n\n

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O’Connor, left, with his capstone team at presentation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

His favorite memory was presenting the capstone project he was a part of with his team. They designed and tested a floating drone launch pad for Naval Undersea Warfare Center. \u201cThe members of my team were amazing and made my final year at URI a wonderful experience,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. \u201cI would do it all over again if I could.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connor has accepted a full-time job offer as an engineer from a family-owned company where he will be doing engineering and design work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After high school, David O\u2019Connor realized that if he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer, he had to do it on his own. The college had to be affordable and close to work because he would need to not only pay tuition, but all living expenses too. Balancing an engineering program and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5354,"featured_media":85454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17,18,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-news","category-news","category-student-success"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85458,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85439\/revisions\/85458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}