By my senior year we had moved to Danbury and I attended the school there. My next classroom “wow” moment occurred in the Descriptive Geometry class. I doubt that many people lay wake in bed and contemplate the boundaries of our existence, but for me the breakthrough happened in this class when Mr. Parsons explained the concept of infinity. Most students had such a hard time accepting that you can count numbers 1, 2, 3… and never stop – that there is no final number. I at last accepted at last this concept of time and space without limits and what it says about our importance or unimportance in the universe.
I continued my education at the University of Connecticut and for this my thanks to the taxpayers who subsidized it. No way could I have afforded to go to any other university on my earnings from my summer jobs. This being a land-grant school, the only obligation I had was to participate in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). We marched once a week in uniforms in an open field for a couple of hours and those who chose the Air Force (AF) option had to take a course in Geopolitics. Of course this was no problem to anyone that came from overseas and I “aced” it. I still feel gratitude being able to afford an education.
Perhaps I should also feel gratitude for the instructors and professors, who did not cut me slack for my less-than-perfect English. It was a rude awakening that I had to compete for grades on the basis of what I produced on paper. That D grade that Mr. McGrew gave me in English Composition dashed my hopes of getting onto the honor roll and earning a scholarship, despite the fact that all my other grades that year were A's. But it was also was wakeup call for me.
For setting my ultimate goal of making a career in aerospace engineering, credit goes to my AF ROTC instructor Capt. Lang and his staff in my undergraduate years. Whatever they saw in me they took me along on their proficiency flights from Westover A.F. base. I loved to look down from 5000 feet through the twin-engine trainer's glass nose. At the same time my fellow cadets saw something in me and elected me Commander of the undergraduate AF ROTC student organization called Command Squadron. No doubt in part due to this I was accepted into the advanced AF ROTC program in my junior year despite the fact that U.S. citizenship was prerequisite. At that time I had not been in the country for five years and therefore was not yet eligible to become a citizen. All these experiences caused me to set my sights on a career in aerospace engineering. This I achieved and after 44 years in the industry I retired from the team that developed the International Space Station.
Looking back at my learning experience I have been blessed by having been under the wing of Mrs. Koppermann, Rev. Aarik, Captain Lang and many other good teachers, not including Miss. Birnbaum during the last days of Nazi Germany.
What can I conclude from this? There are no “self-made men.” We grow on the shoulders of so many around us and with a “little help from our friends,” parents, teachers, mentors, and our society in general, we can achieve our dreams. I am deeply grateful to so many, and I wish I had thanked them all in person.
Arved Plaks, January 2013
