When he was in high school, Jon Kowalski '06 had a plan to go to college and get a degree in vocal music education to become a music teacher.

Over time, however, things shifted for him. He realized that he would do better to keep his passion for music separate from his career path. He started to consider other options, including engineering, and applied to the University of Michigan, Seton Hall and Kettering University. 

When he visited the Kettering University campus, he noticed that the majority of the classrooms were smaller in size than some of his high school classrooms. That’s when he realized the importance of close personal connections with other students and immediate access to faculty that such a tight-knit campus community like Kettering offers. The structure of the integrated co-op education was a clincher for him, and Kettering became his top choice. 

Jon Kowalski '06

Now, Kowalski will be recognized by Kettering as part of the University's annual Alumni Awards Dinner and Reception on Oct. 9 in Brighton, Michigan. Kowalski will receive the Young Alumni Award, which recognizes graduates within the previous 10years who have rendered significant contributions, exhibited outstanding character, or achieved marked success in areas such as alumni service, civic achievement, engineering achievement, entrepreneurial achievement, human relations, management achievement or outstanding achievement.

Kowalski had three co-op jobs throughout his undergraduate education at Kettering University. He started in the summer of 2002 in Kettering’s IT department, leading training efforts for Blackboard, a technology solution to help students and institutions. He co-founded the Michigan Blackboard Users Group and planning their inaugural conference.

His second co-op was with General Electric in the Appliances Division for four terms through the winter of 2004. His final co-op was with ETAS, a division of Bosch located in Ann Arbor, starting in the summer of 2005. His ‘stand out’ co-op experience was his work term abroad with ETAS in Germany in the summer of 2005. He had a wonderful experience there, and recently leveraged his time overseas with his current employer to go back to Germany in 2013 and consult on behalf of an automotive client.

As a student, Kowalski took advantage of the many opportunities that Kettering offers to make an impact on campus and in the community. He was involved in student government where he was instrumental in finding solutions to problems. That experience helped to form his perspective on what it truly means to lead. He unlocked his natural ability to be the one to help solve a problem instead of waiting around for someone else to do it.

He also helped integrate his artistic passion into campus life -- he and his roommate led the charge to organize, fundraise, cast and perform in the musical Tick, Tick…Boom, which was hosted on campus.  

In his eight years since graduating from Kettering, Kowalski looks back at his time spent as a student with a realization that his time at Kettering has had a big impact in shaping his life and his career. One observation that he made while working at his first co-op job was that organizations are made up of people and people have to be considered in the forefront when thinking through problems.

“We all want similar things in life, and in order to be effective, we have to start out understanding people as people—what motivates us, and how do we effectively work together find a solution to a problem,” Kowalski said.

Since leaving Kettering, Kowalski has earned a master's degree and a PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon. He currently works as an associate at McKinsey and Company in Pittsburgh. 

The other gem of intelligence that he picked up as a student was to take the long term approach.

“More and more, our culture is fixated on immediate consequences,” Kowalski said. Looking beyond the here and now, and the ability to avoid getting caught up in the tangle of the moment has given Kowalski the ability to think big and sharpen his vision for the future. He says from time to time he finds it’s necessary to take a moment to reflect and ask, “Is this really important or just a minor step along the journey?”