Adam Schaumburg (26) watched from a car window as the terrain around him changed from forest to desert. Motorcyclists zipped in and out between vehicles throughout his eight-hour drive from Guatemala City to Chisec, where he was headed to work on his senior project for Point Loma Nazarene University.
Schaumburg arrived at PLNU after spending over two decades as a Navy SEAL. Majoring in engineering, he had the unique opportunity to complete his senior project in partnership with Aginno, an organization that shares the love of Jesus through improved healthcare and agriculture techniques.
“Our senior project was building a solar bubble dryer that is meant to be deployed in Chisec, Guatemala, in order to help farmers dry their crops more efficiently,” Schaumburg said. “We built the product and everything was successful. I went to Guatemala to build it in-country, and then train the farmer on how to use it.”
Alongside students from PLNU and Northwest Nazarene University, Schaumburg’s adventure began as soon as he arrived in Guatemala. He quickly found the material to build the prototype, and the next morning, they got to work.
Once the prototype was nearly finished, Schaumburg and his team went with the farmer to the farm where their machine would be employed.
“It was about a mile and a half through the jungle,” he said. “There’s no roads out there. There’s no electricity. It was just this guy knew where his land was. … We get to his land, and it’s in the jungle and it’s extremely steep. He showed us all the different plants he’s growing: corn, cacao, cashews and a few other things.”
Schaumburg had the opportunity to taste a raw cacao bean, which has a bitter flavor and is used with sugar to make chocolate. Although Schaumburg’s prototype was made primarily for drying corn, it was cacao that the farmer was most excited to test out on the machine.
“When he did his [previous] method, he’d get 17 cents per pound,” Schaumburg explained. “If he learned how to dry it correctly in the dryer, he’d get around $2 per pound. It was a huge increase in his profits.”
Although the prototype came together quickly, it came after years of preparation, both at PLNU and in the SEALs. In fact, Schaumburg’s journey began nearly 25 years ago.
Schaumburg said that certain parts of his naval career as a Senior Chief Petty Officer prepared him well for what would come in PLNU’s engineering program.
“It really helped me develop the grit and the continual ‘don’t quit’ attitude that is required to be successful as an engineer.”
“I’ve told students this: when I was going through training, and certain aspects of the SEALs, I felt a similar level of stress and pressure as an engineering major as I did as a SEAL,” Schaumburg said. “It really helped me develop the grit and the continual ‘don’t quit’ attitude that is required to be successful as an engineer.”
Schaumburg was an operator for the SEALs, and although naval operations and engineering are quite different from each other, it was a welcome change.
“[As an operator] we train how to complete the mission, and it’s a relatively linear thinking process, where you plan out your mission, practice [and] do your thing,” he explained. “One of the biggest differences with engineering is that I am a much better thinker now. In engineering, you kind of have to see the end from the beginning, and you have to think down multiple paths.”
Schaumburg said that thanks to PLNU’s engineering program, he was able to think through his projects and theories more dynamically.
“[In the Navy] we train so much that most of what we do is muscle memory,” Schaumburg said. “But when it comes to engineering and physics, it’s a lot of trying to think about multiple variables and different things all at the same time.”
Having spent years in the military, Schaumburg was apprehensive to return to school since he hadn’t brushed up on his math skills in a while. But when a counselor encouraged him to go attend college, he thought, “What do I have to lose?”
That was when his counselor told him about PLNU. After learning that it was a small Christian university where he can get to know his professors, he was sold.
“The classes helped me be more comfortable talking about [faith] because it wasn’t really part of the culture in the military to discuss my faith,” Schaumburg said. “The fact that the professors would pray before tests and sometimes before [lectures] helped me become more comfortable with my Christianity.”
“The fact that the professors would pray before tests and sometimes before [lectures] helped me become more comfortable with my Christianity.”
One of Schaumburg’s favorite professors was Anthony Cortez, an assistant professor of physics and engineering at PLNU. Although he said that Cortez was sometimes challenging, he pushed his students to become better engineers.
“All the [professors] took their job seriously of trying to make the students the best engineers they could,” Schaumburg said. “I wasn’t just 1 out of 250. I knew the professors. You could go in and get face-to-face time with them whenever you needed. Beyond just getting the grade and passing, I believe that actually helped me understand the material.”
Schaumburg said that understanding the material was important to him, so that he could understand whatever challenges the workforce might throw at him.
As Schaumburg gets ready to embrace life after the military and college, next month he’ll be stepping into a new job with Collins Aerospace, a company that works alongside clients in commercial aviation, military and space flight. He’s looking forward to it, and believes it will be a good opportunity for his engineering career.
“I think I’ll be able to utilize a lot of the skills I learned at Point Loma to be successful at the job.” Schaumburg said.
