Jackson Cejda – Moore Norman Technology Center

Then: An upperclassman at Moore High School suggested his freshman friend try the pre-engineering program at Moore Norman Technology Center. Jackson Cejda said at that time he had no idea what he wanted to do after high school, but he’d heard good things about the program, so he took his friend’s advice and signed up.

Now that he has completed the program, Cejda said he uses the skills he gained to guide his professional development. In pre-engineering, he developed

• Project-based thinking abilities. Cejda said for the first time, he was able to look at problems from end to end.
• Critical problem-solving skills.
• Interpersonal professional skills.

“The skills I learned in pre-engineering are applicable every day of my life,” he said. “In my schoolwork, projects and recently in the hiring process for a full-time job.

Cejda said at Moore Norman he learned various professional skills, including how to work on projects as a team, and how to prepare project reports.

“I had fantastic mentors that spanned over four years,” he said. “I was challenged by the projects, and I came out with real actionable skills I could apply to my personal and professional life.”

Now: Cejda attends the University of Oklahoma and plans to graduate in 2021. He works in OU’s Tom Love Innovation Hub, a digital fabrication lab, where he assists in prototyping for university research projects. He has accepted a job as a software engineer for Tesla in Austin, Texas, after graduation. In his new job, Cejda will help build and test Tesla’s new generation of vehicles.

“The pre-engineering program helped me figure out what I truly wanted to do with my career and empowered me with the ability to actually get it done.”