INA – Max Kleiboeker, 19, of Carlyle, never thought his training at Rend Lake College would take him to where he is headed. Recently, he was one of six community college students across the state to receive an engineering scholarship to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
The son of a dairy farmer, Kleiboeker found his niche in high school and followed it to RLC’s robotics program. Cindy Sniderwin, a counselor at RLC, asked him about applying for the scholarship and helped him through part of the process, he said. Now, he is one of the six winners to be selected from 33 applicants spanning every community college in Illinois.
The ATS scholarship – known as the “Blaudow — ATS Program for Technical Leadership in Manufacturing” scholarship – is worth $14,000 for tuition and fees during Kleiboeker’s junior and senior years at SIUC.
His professional path started with an excitement for electricity in a high school class. From there, Kleiboeker answered a newspaper advertisement and enrolled in the RLC robotics program. In the program, he discovered he had a talent for the field.
“When I first started, I never thought I would become an engineer,” he said. “But, now I have such a good understanding of it because of my education at Rend Lake College.”
And because of that training at RLC, Kleiboeker is already ahead of the game after testing out of one engineering technology course at SIUC.
He said the program there is established and credible. He has been in contact with his SIUC advisor as well as Carl Spezta, the electrical engineering instructor he will be studying under for the next two years.
The scholarship is aimed at graduating community college students and named after the donor, SIUC alumnus Richard W. Blaudow, and his wife. Blaudow, the founder of Peoria-based Advanced Technology Services Inc., donated a quarter-million dollars to SIUC to fund the engineering scholarship.
The donation provides scholarship support and on-the-job technical internships for community college graduates enrolled in the college, Dean William P. Osborne said in a press release from SIUC.
Since part of the scholarship is a three-month, paid internship at ATS for the cream of the community college engineering crop, the donation is definitely an investment for Blaudow’s company. Kleiboeker said he will be paid a minimum $2,800 per month while learning the ropes at ATS.
Graduating with an associate’s degree from the RLC Industrial Maintenance Technology program in May will be a big milestone in Kleiboeker’s fast-track to a brilliant future in a fast-growing field.
He said his parents, Allen and Dottie, are very proud of his most recent achievement.
“They are glad they don’t have to pay for it,” he joked. “They think it’s great. They are always saying to people how proud they are of me.”
His field is a long way from the farm.
“It’s very different from what they do,” he said with a smile. “And, down the road, I may still farm on the side. But, I think I’m going to stick with this for awhile.”
“Max is a fine student and a great young man,” said RLC Industrial Maintenance Professor Chris Nielsen. “He is very capable of success in the program at SIU and he will make someone a very good employee.”