LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A new program is inspiring students to pursue engineering as their field of study in college.

What You Need To Know

  • This partnership is called G.E.E.S or the guaranteed entrance to engineering school program

  • It’s not a quick process—but it is open to any interested students who are seniors.

  • GE Appliances also announced a partnership with Bullitt Co. Schools and the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering

  • Students that successfully complete the yearlong project are automatically considered.

Eighteen-year-old Matthew Saul was tinkering with a special project when he spoke with Spectrum News 1. He’s a senior at Bullitt Central High School and says school is going great. He’s going to college, plus he likes to work with his hands. That’s why he says he plans to major in mechanical engineering.

“I’ve always loved working with my hands, solving problems. So, I figured that was a good thing for me,” Saul explained.

Thursday, students at Bullitt Central got together for a big event to showcase their work. Over the last school year, GE Appliances worked with 22 teams of Bullitt County High School students. The teams picked their own project designs. This year’s project theme was to design a tiny house that is inclusive of people with disabilities, and is energy sustainable and food independent. Saul and his partner designed something to help people save food in Tupperware.

“It’s basically a timer with a thermometer that’ll tell you ‘Hey, your food has gone bad. You’ve left it out for this amount of time. You need to throw it away,’” Saul explained.

Thursday, GE Appliances also announced a partnership with Bullitt County Public Schools and the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering. It’s an effort to support the Guaranteed Entrance to Engineering School agreement.

Students that successfully complete the yearlong project are considered automatically. Those selected by a committee gain automatic entrance into UofL’s Speed school.

This tiny house project is the first one eligible for this agreement.

“This is our way of finding local talent and leveraging all the connections that we have to help bring some students forward who might not otherwise have a way or might not be aware. So, this is just us stepping in, in yet another way, to help our local community,” said Michael Ekbundit, GE Appliances director of engineering programs.

In Saul’s eyes, the year of work they’ve done this year matters.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to help serve my community,” he shared.

Saul’s hard work paid off as he earned guaranteed acceptance into UofL’s Speed College of Engineering through this program.

“It feels great. I got my life planned out ahead of me,” he explained. “I know what I’m doing and I love what I’m doing. So, it’s overall a good thing for me.”

Ekbundit said this is a long-term investment of GE Appliances’ time and money into the community. He also said they will be doing this project again next year. 

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