2020 PUPID SCHOLARSHIP WINNER
The ISA Pulp & Paper Industry Division is pleased to award the 2020 $2000 PUPID Scholarship to Andrew Jamison McCabe from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As a member of the University’s Honors Program and with a GPA of 3.79, Andrew is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Paper Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Applied Mathematics.
Andrew says he’s proud to have learned so much from them and continues to do so. His Father, Mike, works at CHEP Pallets as team lead for US Customer service division, and Mother, Kathy, works at Advantage Solutions as team lead to the Consumer Healthcare division. His brother, Ben, works at Martin Transportation as a trucking dispatcher. Andrew says that he and Ben bond over working on their cars such as his 1969 short-bed Chevy truck. Andrew is a 2016 graduate of Hudsonville High School in Hudsonville, Michigan; located just fifty miles north of Kalamazoo. Andrew says that although he has lived in CA, NJ, OH, MI, and WI in total; he considers Hudsonville and Kalamazoo his homes anywhere he goes though.
As a student in the Chemical and Paper Engineering Department at Western Michigan University he says he has been fortunate to participate in many extracurricular activities. Within the college of engineering he has found many unique opportunities through the student organization, the Sunseeker Solar Car team. On this team, as a member of the solar sub-team, he has been able to apply for the Student Sustainability Grant, rebuild the rear array for the 2016 car, successfully race in the 2019 Formula Sun Grand Prix (while achieving 5th out of over 25 teams), and teach new team members about the ethylene-vinyl acetate process and the soldering processes necessary to make useful solar panels.
Elsewhere on campus Andrew participates in many activities, programs, and jobs the Office for Sustainability hosts. These include being a 18-19' sustainability fellow in the historic Gibbs House, creating a Student Sustainability Grant funded woodworking course that has brought in and taught over 50 students about woodworking as a useful form of sustainability, as well as helped host many other community events or activities such as fun nights and potlucks. Additionally, he is a member of the WMU chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon. This serves as the math club for campus. Here he has given a talk on an approximate set of models for predicting the growth of trees in a forest in several types of situations such as fires or clear cuts. These models differ in being based on difference and differential equations, respectively.
Within the Paper Engineering student organization on campus, Tsai-Lun, he serves as the treasurer and have successfully aided their group in receiving $5,000+ from funding sources around campus. In this role he has also been a speaker and mentor to first-year paper students and has helped lead trips to Wisconsin and Atlanta for two separate field trips.
Andrew’s other scholarships include:
- Colonel Charles E. Bayliss Scholarship (2019 – Present)
- TAPPI Process Control Scholarship Recipient (2019)
- Haenicke Institute Scholarship Recipient (2018)
- Paper Technology Foundation Endowed Scholarship Recipient (2016 – Present)
- WMU CAES Scholarship (2016 – Present)
Andrew goes on to say that since his time at OMT-Veyhl he has recognized his wish to expand his care and intention with coworkers. It is here that he was fortunate to work closely with large industrial equipment for the first time, solidify his intrigue in industry, but also to work closely day-to-day with numerous devoted people. From here he says that he was fortunate to be able to work closely with several crews while on co-op in Rhinelander, WI. After this first co-op there, he was offered and took the opportunity to work as a shift supervisor for 6 more months before returning to school. During this time, he discovered some of the most important things about communication and teamwork that no other experience could afford him. At 3 am and without anyone else around is when he had some of the best talks and hardest learning curves. It is from here that he learned that he cherishes time with machine crews and that he wishes to work with them in some fashion for the extent of my career.
Andrew is interested in being able to understand the control systems such as those made by MeasureX, Honeywell, Rockwell, Voith, Valmet, and any other systems in the paper industry. He says he sees these as gateways to be able to build control systems and likely will pursue a future degree in electrical engineering so that he may better understand how to work with the electronic behind the scenes.
Andrew has accepted a co-op position with Wieland Construction in Kalamazoo, MI and will be helping them build the new Graphic Packaging International machine. Once this co-op finishes, he hopes to be hired on fulltime and complete the construction of the machine as well as the startup.
In his free time, he enjoys woodworking and home repair. Through travel to Costa Rica, Guatemala, and
["Castillo de San Felipe de Lara" from across Lake Izabal in Guatemala where Andrew stayed at a rubber plantation called "La Finca" (literally 'the farm').]
numerous contiguous US states he has discovered many great memories with friends that center around backpacking, camping, and learning about new cultures. As for physical activity Andrew greatly enjoys rock climbing, hiking, running and plant identification. He says his favorite vacations stem around being outdoors and learning how our natural world came to be. While not able to vacation, he says he really enjoy building, welding, electrical work, and fine woodworking.