Alumni
Work that PC Network! Casey Maher OPC ’10 learned that the alumni network is a resource waiting to be tapped by career-minded graduates. by Elizabeth Spagnoletti OPC ’08
A
s young as five or six years old, Casey T. Maher OPC ’10 knew he wanted to become a pilot. “When you’re not conflicted about what you want to do,” he said, “it gives you a lot of time to build up towards something.” As part of that building process, during Maher’s junior year at PC, then-college counselor Erin Hughes submitted his application for a summer program at Drexel University called the Mentorship Program in Engineering. With this early exposure to the field of engineering and applied science, Maher went
OPC ’10 Taking Off: Casey Maher (front) and Hunter Beck in November at the Naval Aviation Museum, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla.
32
•
Fall 2014
on to pursue an engineering degree at Lehigh University, always with the goal of becoming a pilot. After his freshman year at Lehigh, Maher searched for a summer internship opportunity but came up short. After his sophomore year, he had the same experience. “I think if I had known earlier the value of having an internship on your resume,” Maher said, “I would have tried much harder every year.” Even more motivated during junior year, he began asking himself, “What resources do I really have to get this internship?” That January, he attended PC’s Young Alumni Holiday Hoop-la, an event for young OPCs, and spoke to then-Director of Alumni Relations Theodore F. Decker Jr. OPC ’78. Decker’s advice: Go to the online Alumni Directory. It was then that Maher realized what an obvious and useful resource this was. “If there’s one place that I think values the alumni community, it’s Penn Charter,” he said. Maher went home, logged into the Alumni Directory and searched “engineering” as a keyword. He selected three OPCs who were affiliated with companies that Maher thought would have good internship opportunities. He then sent these names to Decker, who gave him the green light to call all three OPCs and introduce himself. “That’s kind of a scary thing when I think about it,” Maher said. “You’re a little intimidated to be calling these – in many cases, captains of industry – guys who are vice presidents of engineering firms or presidents of their own.”
But the method proved successful. Maher called all three OPCs, and all three called him back. “I think most Penn Charter alumni are the caliber person to want to help you out and want to help you achieve that,” he said. “Because I think they know what it’s like to get into Penn Charter, to go to Penn Charter, to graduate from Penn Charter.” Maher accepted an internship with Jay Canuso at Oxford Engineering Company Inc. out of Camden, N.J. Canuso attended Penn Charter from kindergarten through junior year, and his son, Julian, graduated with Maher in 2010. Maher spent that summer doing “a little bit of everything” – from AutoCAD modeling to construction labor. “The recommendation came through Ted [Decker],” Canuso said, “and I was not hesitant to take [Maher] on.” Canuso had hosted Decker’s son Ted Decker OPC ’06 for an internship the previous summer, in fact. “You can’t always do it as a small company, but I would be interested in having an [OPC] intern again. It was a great experience with both Casey and Ted.” Maher’s experience at Oxford Engineering Company gave him credentials that helped him in his military recruitment process. Hearing about Canuso’s career trajectory also gave Maher another push in the right direction: “You look to people you admire, and if you really research the choices they made, it’s not a guaranteed thing, but that’s the best way to get to where you want to go. Because it’s proven. That’s what really helped me focus my path through college: seeing other people who had done it, and hearing their stories and listening.” Following his internship, Maher attended the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Newport, R.I., specifically for aviation. He earned his commission from OCS in September and has moved to Pensacola, Fla., to attend flight school. From Hughes to Decker to Canuso – and everyone in between – Maher recognizes the many people who helped him achieve his dreams. Whether it was friendly advice or an open door, Maher took advantage of any and every opportunity. But finding good people is not just a matter of luck for Maher. It is a strategy, and he employed it at Lehigh’s challenging engineering program.
