CareerTech helps Choctaw man launch his dream career in space exploration
Although lots of kids grow up dreaming of rockets and spaceships, few of them see their dreams become reality. But a SpaceX engineer from Oklahoma said his childhood dream is now his career, thanks to a little nudge from CareerTech.
Clayton Smith said his high school physics teacher helped him bring his fascination with outer space down to earth. Smith enrolled in an introductory physics course as a Choctaw High School junior. His instructor, Edward Lord, was passionate about physics and passed that passion on to Smith, who planned to take a full-blown physics course the following year.
That’s when his beloved instructor announced he was leaving Choctaw High School to build a pre-engineering program at Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center. Smith was college-bound but decided to attend EOC Tech his senior year. He said Lord’s pre-engineering courses helped him prepare for college.
“I worked through projects which required building machines and robots and creating things with the 3D printer,” he said. “And I was surrounded by peers who shared similar passions.”
Around that time, SpaceX was quickly becoming a leader in space exploration, and Smith wanted to be part of that mission. Through CareerTech, he became familiar with the subjects and tools needed to reach his goal, including physics, math, problem-solving, technical drawing and computer-aided design.
“CareerTech provided a dedicated means to achieve more focused training and allowed me to pursue the things I was passionate about,” Smith said.
He continued pursuing that passion at the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. Two years ago, Smith landed his dream job at SpaceX.
“I develop structures and mechanisms to launch and deploy the satellites,” he said.
So far, Smith has launched 139 satellites into space, but his career was launched here in Oklahoma.
