May 28, 2002

Long Road Ends in Graduation for NC State Engineering Student

Janie Sutton gets a hug from son Stephen Norman-Scott after receiving her mechanical engineering degree.

You’re hired for this position…as an engineer. “I never thought the words “as an engineer” could sound so sweet!” said Janie N. Sutton, who graduated May 18 from NC State University with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. Sutton has worked long and hard to hear those three words.

She started nearly 20 years ago, going to school part time while raising her son as a single parent. A careful and methodical person, Sutton took the unusual step of interviewing a number of people in several possible professions before making her choice to go into mechanical drafting. She got an diploma from Piedmont Community College in mechanical drafting and went to work for Progress Energy (then called CP&L). Her instructors at technical school encouraged her to consider pursuing a degree in engineering.

“I always wanted to get my degree,” she said. “I felt that a part of me wasn’t complete if I didn’t get my bachelor’s. I tried to go back in 1986, when my son was 14, but working full time, being a good parent and trying to do well in courses was just too much.”

It wasn’t until her son went to college himself and Sutton remarried that her dream could become a reality. When she started taking classes, her husband made her promise two things — don’t do it for the money and don’t stop until she was done. “I had to think about it,” she laughed. “But I agreed.”

Starting with transfer classes at Wake Technical Community College in 1996, she continued to work full time, but by 1999 she became tired of the one-course-at-a-time approach. “You lose the connection among classes when you do it that way,” she said. “It’s too easy to forget the math you took two years ago when you need it for the next course!” So Sutton quit her job, with her husband’s support and blessing, to go to school full time at NC State.

“I went year-round, including summers,” Sutton said. She found the math challenging and formed strong relationships with other students based on math study groups. On the plus side, her life experience was useful to her fellow students as well as to her own perspective. “I had learned what’s important and what’s not,” she said. “I understood where to focus the greatest energy.”

That energy has paid off this spring. Degree in hand, Sutton heads to a new job with engineering consulting firm Clark, Richardson and Biskup — and the best part — as an engineer.

— rudd —

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