Whistle Foxbury is a freshman transfer student studying mechanical engineering at SRU. His goal is to attend the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School to become a pilot.
Foxbury attended Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) for an associate’s degree, where he discovered SRU and CCBC have a mechanical engineering partnership program.
Mechanical engineering majors have a packed course load, including classes like calculus, chemistry and computer engineering tools.
“It’s a lot of time management trying to figure out how to balance studying for calc, studying for chem lectures and filling out stuff for civil discourse,” Foxbury said.
When he is not studying for classes, Foxbury earns flight hours flying planes from Grove City Flight Academy.
Foxbury needs 250 flight hours for a commercial pilot license.
“The end goal is somewhere north of, like, 1,500 [hours] to start applying for test pilot school and actual commercial airline jobs,” he said.
Foxbury has the opportunity to work on hands-on projects in mechanical engineering classes.
In his Intro to Engineering course, Foxbury is working with a group of students to build an autonomous drone. “I’m pretty excited about that,” he said.
He and his group will use coding skills and a 3D printer lab to produce the drone. The goal is for the drone to pick things up and move them.
“We hope to turn it into a shipping drone type thing,” Foxbury said. “To just pick something up and move it somewhere else.”
The different groups will display their projects at the end of the semester in the Smith Student Center Ballroom.
According to Foxbury, mechanical engineering majors do not fit the stereotype they’re associated with.
“One of the stereotypes I’ve seen is that engineers are all very hermetic people: that they’re by themselves a lot,” Foxbury said. “But no, a lot of people I’ve met are very outgoing, social and very fun to be around.”
Foxbury also said the mechanical engineering majors he is around are “impeccably smart.”
“It’s really nice to see that in action,” he said.
Foxbury said his family are his biggest supporters and inspire him to keep going on tough days.
“[My family] have been my biggest sponsors and supporters for as long as I can remember,” he said. He described his family as his “north star.”
Foxbury advised students interested in piloting or mechanical engineering to study hard. He also said researching flight schools and scholarships is important.
“Everything you can find is pretty much one Google search away,” he said.
