The "Dream Chaser" Caught His Dream!!

When we first moved to Alabama, we got AL tags for our van and Travis put DRMCHSR on it, indicating that he was here to chase his dream of being an industrial designer full time. He got his post-bacc undergrad degree in 3 semesters, took a summer off to work, then came back and has been pursuing his Masters since fall. He both turned in his written thesis last week and did his oral defense yesterday. The kids and I enjoyed dressing up and sitting in on his oral presentation and watching Travis field Q&A from his committee and other interested faculty and staff. It was all over in less than an hour. Then the committee excused all of us and deliberated on whether or not to pass him.

Within 15 minutes, they called Travis back into the room. (The kids and I came in too!) The head of his committee kept up the suspense by going over all the options. He said it was quite normal for a grad student to have either their oral presentation or the thesis fail on the first try. He said it was only in a VERY RARE case that someone's written thesis and oral presentation pass on the first time for industrial design. After all, Auburn's ID program is ranked 6th in the nation. Then his looked at Travis and said, "What category do you think you fall into?" Travis, being modest, asked the professors to spell it out for him. They smiled and said he passed BOTH the thesis book and the presentation!! YAY!! I'm so proud of my honey! And not surprised a bit! Travis was made to do this!

All that's left for him to officially get his masters is for him to finish one class he's taking this summer. He's enjoying the class and has straight A's so far, so I don't anticipate this being a problem. But he'll still be busy with 2 TA positions and contract work on top of that. We'll get through, though. We always do. :)

One more piece of good news on Travis's end: Travis is a member of IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America). They read his thesis, thought it was relevant, and asked him to be a guest speaker at the 2011 IDSA international conference in September!! Travis accepted the speaking part yesterday and he will be presenting his thesis topic and findings there in just a few short months!! So a big "Thank you, God!!!" for all of these opportunities. And of course, our biggest prayer request is for Travis to get a great job offer very soon. We need to make decisions about our rented house in VA asap. It's hard to do that when we don't know if we'll be living there or not.

Thanks to all who encouraged us over the years! And to those following my biking, I'll see if I can share my smaller success with you in another post. I want this one to be dedicated fully to Travis for such a good job!!!!! LOVE MY HONEY!!!