About Me

This is the section that I give you bloggers a brief understanding of me and why I am the person I am today (yeaaa super deep so stick with me). So, I was born in Morgantown WV (Go Mountaineers!) and only lived in the mountain state for 3 months before moving to the mitten state, otherwise known as Michigan. I spent the next 15 years of my life in Bedford Michigan just doing semi normal kid stuff.

During the summer of 2008 my parents felt called to go to the mission field and run a small 80 bed bush hospital in Kamakwie Sierra Leone. This was a huge change of scenery for a fifteen-year-old, especially since the only “white people” in Kamakwie were me and my parents. I spent the next 2 ½ years of my life in Kamakwie going to school, being a kid, and helping co-found a self-sustaining scholarship project.

I then returned from Sierra Leone to Toledo, OH to attend school for my senior year to help better prepare for university (getting to experience prom and other senior experiences was nice too). While I was over in Sierra Leone I began to develop a dream to help those in developing countries with my understanding of mechanical and electrical systems so I decided to attend Liberty University and pursue a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. After my first year at Liberty, I decided to change my focus and switch from Electrical Engineering to Mechanical Engineering and to do that I transferred to West Virginia University.

 In the summer between my first year at Liberty and when I transferred to WVU, I did an internship with a small NGO in Sierra Leone called Energy For Opportunity (ENFO). During this internship we installed small solar systems in a couple bush clinics which allowed them to have lights, a cell phone charging station (source of revenue for the clinic), and refrigeration to keep anti-venoms and other medicines. We also installed a 30 KW solar system at the hospital in Kamakwie (during this whole time my parents are still running this hospital) to allow them to have lights 24/7 and do one surgery a day on solar power rather than having to run an expensive generator.

During my next three years at WVU I learned very many important engineering ideas, but I also learned a very hard work ethic that sticks with me today. The state of West Virginia has regularly been listed quite low on the list for richest states, but one thing West Virginia has in lack of money is ubiquitous understanding of the pride of being a hard worker, and this idea is heavily instilled in those that graduate from the engineering program at WVU.

I held two more internships during my time in school. One as a head camp counselor for engineering summer camps for kids (patience, leadership, understanding, teaching) and the other for a small research and development company in Pittsburgh, PA. My internship in Pittsburgh was with Epiphany Solar Water Systems, and what we focused on was making modular solar powered water sanitation systems (brainstorming, startup work environment, failures, testing, redesign). 

After graduation, I moved to Washington D.C. and began working for Siemens Building Technologies Division and stayed with the company for 1 year and 8 months before switching directions and taking my position with Global Ministries as their Project Engineer.

I put all those random words in parenthesis after my last two internships because if you look back you can see that a lot of my life experiences have lead up to this position I have with Global Ministries. I hope you don’t look at this about me and just think, “Wow everything really lined up for you…”. The title of this blog is Follow Your Dreams and Remain Faithful, which is my hope for everyone in life. Through a lot of those past experiences, there were a lot of blood, sweat, and tears shed; and I am sure there will be more in the future, but that is what dreams are made of. Dreams aren’t always going to be easy. Yes, I love the fact that I get the opportunity to wake up and make an immediate difference in the world around me; but waking up is just step one, then comes the part of actually doing the work.  Following your dreams is putting in the hard work, making sacrifices, and above all else remaining faithful to God. You may not be religious and that is fine, but without God helping lead the way for me I know I would not be where I am today. I promise this blog won’t be preachy or judgmental, but I warn you up front, you may just see some of the miracles of God that I have personally seen in my own life. My hope for you is that this blog would, independent ( or regardless) of your religious beliefs, continue to encourage the work I do and if you so choose it, pray that God will help guide me in the way he so plans.

-Matt