PROFILE: Chad Lockard
Co-Op and Overseas Experience Brings Out His Best

Confidence: that's what Chad Lockard will walk away with when he graduates in June.

This strong belief in himself and his abilities is the best thing he's earned while a UC student both challenged and excited by chances to work and study abroad.

"That first month (spent abroad in England( was the hardest of my life. There was so much to adjust to. I hit a brick wall of culture shock. At first, I had no friends to talk to, and Mom and Dad were more than just a phone call away," explained Lockard of his six months of study and work at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in late 1999 and early 2000.

"Then," he added, "the last five months were great. I'd say you learn 'yourself' more than any subject of study when you go to another country and make it. Adapting to a different culture improved me as a person. It gave me a confidence boost to go anywhere and make it."

Lockard, 22, of Pemberville in northwest Ohio and a 1996 graduate of Eastwood High School there, was UC's first recipient of the Brian H. Rowe/Textron, Inc. Scholarship which provides for annual student exchanges between UC's College of Engineering and the University of Newcastle in England. While Lockard was able to study for three months and then work on a transportation research project in England for an additional three months, a Newcastle student, Mark Adamson, was able to come for study at UC in the summer of 1999. The University of Newcastle, located near the Scottish border, is one of the top 15 research universities in Great Britain.

Though the cultural adjustment challenged Lockard, it also brought out the best in him. Soon enough, he was playing basketball at Newcastle, quickly becoming well respected for his play and contributing to his team -- after he learned to play in a more "genteel" manner that is. He laughed, "They don't play as physically as we do. I was getting foul calls left and right at first." More significantly, he began coordinating social nights out to bring everyone closer and better the team. "I took the initiative on that, and that helped us to make the '64-team' tournament which was our goal. One player told me they'd never socialized or hung out as a team before I came along, and he was really glad to be doing it."

Lockard, a civil and environmental engineering major, draws a parallel between his academic career at UC, his cooperative education work quarters where he gained experience working for companies throughout the U.S., and the time spent in Europe. All changed him as a person, helped him to know himself better and guided him to the next step in life.

For instance, coming to UC and living away from home for the first time challenged Lockard to mature, he said. "When you come here, people see a completely different person than what your image might be back home. Who they see builds on how you conduct yourself. This is a test of values and helps you to understand yourself better. That whole freshman process was repeated in a way when I went to England."

Similarly, Lockard's cooperative education quarters helped him to better define what he truly enjoyed. His first year-and-a-half were spent as a mechanical engineering major. Then, he worked two co-op quarters with Cummins Engine Company, a manufacturer of large-size engines. The co-ops changed the direction of Lockard's life as he subsequently decided he'd probably like civil and environmental engineering better.

So, he switched majors. Then, came more co-op quarters working for Bayer-Becker Engineers in Fairfield, Ohio, and for Winter Construction in Atlanta where Lockard gained experience as an office engineer on large development and construction projects. He learned something more here: "You gain perspective, make some money and learn what you want to do. It helped me look at different opportunities. You try it out before you're out of school, learn to work with different people, and you do your best and do the job well."

He concluded, "I learned through co-op that I'm more interested in the business side of things. I also learned through co-op and through my time in Europe that I would like to travel."

Knowing this, Lockard sought out interviews through UC's Career Development Center with employers who would provide him the business experience he wanted. The result: Lockard will serve as a business consultant for Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) after graduation.

Though his years at UC have allowed Lockard to, quite literally, travel further than he ever thought he would, it's not the places so much as the people that he'll remember. "I did see the Tower Bridge and Buckingam Palace in London, but I could have seen them just as well in a good photograph. What's most important is that I learned to get along with people. I learned I could adjust, become more open minded...UC has been the best time of my life. I'll be excited too to dig in and start work full time."