Jeffrey - Engineer

This post is part of "The Story Behind Hazleton," a senior project completed by Paige Onder, an Immanuel Christian School graduate from the class of 2023.

While waking up in the morning is something that many of us dread, Jeffrey works the night shift, so for him the mornings are the time of day where he eats dinner. Jeffrey is an engineer and while there are a number of challenges that come with his job, his passion for what he does shines through all of these obstacles.

Jeffrey was born and raised in Hazleton. Growing up, Jeffrey described himself as an average 90s baby. While this statement may hold some generational truth, he was far from average as by the time he was ten years old he was already a black belt in karate.

Jeffrey always performed well in school. He enjoyed a majority of his classes and thrived due to self-motivation. In ninth grade, Jeffrey began high school at Immanuel Christian School. In the beginning he struggled to keep up with the harder curriculum he was faced with, but through the support of teachers like Mr. Kapuschinsky, his math teacher at the time, he not only began doing well but eventually grew to love mathematics as more than just a subject he was required to take in school. This period in his life helped him realize that by combining his enthusiasm for math with his love of using his hands that he wanted to do something in engineering.

When Jeffrey graduated high school, he went on to study at Luzerne County Community College. During this time he worked full time and did school full time. During college, he says that he became more outgoing and this helped prepare him for his job field now which involves frequent communication with his other team members.

Today, Jeffrey still lives and works within the Hazleton Area. One thing he says that he enjoys about living here is that there are always outdoor activities to do. Jeffrey enjoys a number of these activities in his free time, particularly off road quading and street hockey. Aside from outdoors, Jeffrey also enjoys programming and gaming. Recently, Jeffrey completed designing his own computer. He also volunteers every year at the haunted trail where he even builds his own section of the trail.

As our world continues to grow with more people having access to education, more and more people have begun deeming themselves “mathematically challenged" or claim they will never be able to write beyond the alphabet. Jeffrey argues that this is an unfortunate side effect of our current world. He argues that in order to do any job, it is important to use both the artistic and numerical sides of our brains. People often assume that as an engineer he is probably only good at math. In reality, Jeffrey is creative and even paints. According to Jeff, “Not a day goes by that I am not in touch with both my artistic side and my mathematical side. Whether I am at work or at home doing dishes, there are always new ways to look at the world.”