TechNation and Penn State’s College of Engineering have teamed up to create an essay competition to recognize dedicated students in the university’s Biomedical Engineering Technology program. The winner of the essay contest receives a $500 scholarship to be put toward their education.
The award is named for the late Myron Hartman. He was the program coordinator and senior instructor of the Biomedical Engineering Technology program for Penn State University at the New Kensington campus for more than 13 years after returning to his alma mater in 2001 to teach future generations of biomeds after serving in the field for several years.
The Penn State’s College of Engineering staff screened the essays and they were judged on creativity, organization and writing skills. Jason Brunner is the winner of the 2015 essay competition. His winning essay is printed below.
By Jason Brunner
I had always been impressed with those people that knew what they wanted to do with their lives at an early age. My earliest recollections are of me wanting to be an astronaut. I have felt “lost” at times, but as I have matured my sense of direction in life has become clearer. This newfound clarity is a far cry from the 5-year-old boy who wanted to go to the moon.
Fast-forward 13 years when I headed to college, for the first time, to become a civil engineer. I chose engineering because I tested well in the appropriate areas associated with becoming an engineer. I also enjoyed, sometimes to the chagrin of my parents, taking objects apart and trying to discern how they functioned. Many of my “experiments” were already broken, so my tinkering did not add further damage. More often than not, I could understand how things were assembled and how they were designed to operate. However, I vividly remember always having “leftover parts.” I was not ready to grow up and I left school after just one year.
After a few years of “fumbling around” trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I “grew up,” my younger brother’s illness gave me some direction. The advancement of his muscular dystrophy had placed my brother in the hospital. During a visit, I saw the therapy department and really saw myself helping others for a living. So, I went back to school. Fortunately, I was able to get my associate degree in physical therapy. Over the next 18 years, I was able to meet and assist many different people. When asked if I liked physical therapy, I would respond truthfully, “I’m blessed; I get paid to help others for a living.” There are very few things that feel as good as watching a patient go home after an extended stay in a hospital or nursing home, knowing that you had a hand in their recovery.
During the “therapy years,” I continued to tinker with mechanically troubled items. Wheelchairs, braces, computers and, printers were among the few objects that kept the engineering part of me alive. In fact, my friend and co-worker would often joke that the person who hated seeing me leave a building the most was the maintenance man, because I could fix just about everything that broke in our department, freeing him up. This was the best of both worlds, or so I thought.
While working as a physical therapist assistant, I met my wife. We got married and moved into our house in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. A few years later, new neighbors moved in, and in no time we became friends. One day during the topic of occupations, I found out that he was a biomedical engineering specialist. After helping my neighbor with various home projects and continued questioning on my behalf, my neighbor suggested that I would make a good match for biomedical engineering technology. At first, I thought he was crazy. I really loved therapy, but the seed was planted.
The world is an ever-evolving entity. I have seen major corporate powerhouses crumble and fade into thin air because they refuse to adapt. I have witnessed small ideas blossom into world-changing designs. I’m no longer considered a young man, unless I’m being compared to some of my patients, but I’ve heard the expression, “Some of the most fascinating people didn’t know what they wanted to do until later in life.” I am hoping to be one of those people, and that is why I have chosen to return to college and become a biomedical engineering technologist. In my new career, I can continue to help others and feed that never-ending desire to fix things, hopefully with fewer “leftover parts.”
Am I still impressed with those who have a clear cut path for their life? Absolutely. But to quote Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”