LCCC COLLEGE CREDIT PLUS TRANSFER STUDENT
How an LCCC start led transfer student Zachary Horvath to BGSU and his dream career The revving of the Top Thrill Dragster engine getting ready to launch. The noise of the FunTVs entertaining park goers while they wait in line. These sounds fill the air at Cedar Point and they make Zachary Horvath smile. He’s a technical services technician at the Sandusky park, keeping the audio and video equipment throughout Cedar Point and its resorts running at the highest quality. For Horvath, 20, it’s the perfect combination of career and interest. “I love theme parks, and I love technology, so I’ve really found what I love doing by working in theme park technology,” he says.
But Horvath isn’t sure he’d be where he is today – certainly not debt free – if it wasn’t for Lorain County Community College.
‘There’s no better way to get a head start’
Horvath, who grew up in Elyria Township, started taking College Credit Plus courses at LCCC while attending Open Door Christian School. It was his first introduction to college-level classes and taking them helped ease the transition to college and accelerate his time to graduation. “This program introduced me to the rigorous demands of college courses while I was taking only one class and not a full course load,” Horvath says. “And it opened up the opportunity to take more
ZACHARY HORVATH
Eventually Horvath would like to work his way up in the industry and be a part of the visionary team that creates new attractions. To help him get there,
he enrolled in the new Resort and Attraction Management program at Bowling Green State University in downtown Sandusky. Horvath expects to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in 2022. And the entire cost of his degree is already paid for thanks, in part, to the Thompson Scholarship he earned from BGSU.
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Lo rai n Co u n t y Co m m u n i t y Colleg e
higher level classes my first full year of college. There’s no better way to get a head start in college and in my career.” Horvath believes that head start, coupled with his good grades, helped him earn the many scholarships he has, including the Trustee Scholarship from LCCC that covers the entire cost of two years’ tuition. “Having your tuition completely paid for was just an offer that was too hard to pass up,” Horvath says. “I knew that this would be the right decision for me.” What Horvath wasn’t sure of though, was the career path he wanted to take. Luckily LCCC gave him flexibility to find the right career path for him. “I was able to pick up a couple night classes as well as a couple online classes, and work part-time while I was in school,” Horvath says.
‘This scholarship is geared toward working students’
Horvath began working at Cedar Fair, the parent company of Cedar Point, in May 2019 as a live entertainment technician at Cedar Point. He ran sound and resolved technical issues for some of the park’s small shows. Since then, Horvath has held the same position at Cedar Point’s sister park, Kings Island, running sound for the park’s most popular show, Tinker’s Toy Factory, which had up to 1,200 guests per performance. In March 2020, he began his current role at Cedar Point.
