Creating conversation

Career Services at Wright State University has a new tool to help engage students and connect them with people and resources.

Cindy Garman, a career consultant in Career Services, had an idea to build a mobile beverage cart to spark conversation during campus events. With a $2,000 grant from the Wright State University Foundation’s Students First Fund and help from mechanical engineering students, the idea came to fruition.

“I was like a kid in a candy store,” said Garman. “I was happy when they accepted the project.”

As part of their senior design capstone project, Collin Thompson, Josh Zizka, Cameron Berner and Bernadette West designed and built the beverage cart.

“This has been a learning process,” said West. “The team that we have, for some of us this was the first time ever meeting each other so it’s sort of like a good representative of real life.”

Students completed the design and build during the Fall and Spring Semesters. The cart features a throttle, steering mechanism, emergency stop switch, beverage storage spaces, cooler and umbrella stand.

The mechanical engineering students presented the beverage cart to Career Services staff during their Spring Capstone Design Expo presentation on April 23.

“I was beyond ecstatic when I saw it,” said Garman. “The best part about it, it’s for students, built by students at Wright State.”