Scholarship Recipient Profile: Spencer Cole
Spencer Cole describes himself as a nerd. Actually, the sophomore math major calls himself a “full-on nerd.” However ask any of his professors and classmates, and most likely they’ll use words like inquisitive, adventurous, motivated and really smart.
Cole is a 2017 graduate of Mt. Lassen Charter School as well as a 2017 Lassen College Foundation Scholarship recipient. He graduated from Lassen Community College last Friday (May 26, 2017) with his Associates of Science at the ripe old age of 17 years old and plans to attend the University of Nevada at Reno to study Mechanical Engineering in the fall.
“For most of my time in high school, I was taking classes at Lassen College,” said Cole. “I graduated a year early from high school and now I will do the same at Lassen College.”
Cole enrolled in his first class at LCC when he was 14 and has taken every math class offered at Lassen, except for Statistics. He has worked in the math lab since for enrolling at Lassen three years ago, and figures he tutored nearly 20 students on a consistent basis.
Cole attributes his love of engineering, math and physics to his childhood and growing up with a dad that loves to tinker with engines. His dad never hired mechanics, though in Cole’s opinion, there were times he probably should have. That interest of machines has spawned into a love of motorcycles, a hobby that his entire family enjoys together and can often be found riding to Taylorsville on the weekends.
“I love the people at Lassen,” said Cole. “The teachers have been great … even in the subjects I’m not particularly interested in. I’ve made a lot of friends. It’s definitely the people that make this college as good as it is.”
Cole said he would like to return to Lassen County and find a career in mechanical engineering following graduation from UNR, but is also interested in going to work for NASA’s JPL, Jet Propulsion Lab located in Pasadena, where they conduct research and development. He’s also looking at Tesla’s Gigafactory outside Sparks, NV, where the electric car manufacturer produces lithium batteries.
Cole credits Ross Stephenson and Natalia McClellan for making the biggest impact while he was at Lassen College, “Both have helped me particularly in math and physics. Their style of teaching really worked well with me. They went above and beyond to get me interested.”
Cole plans to spend the summer working to save for tuition at UNR and exploring the area via motorcycles with his family.
