Benjamin Campbell
Age 19
Hometown: Nampa, Idaho
Representing the United States at WorldSkills in Mechanical Engineering
Ben Campbell has always loved making things. Since he was young, he was either drawing plans or building with Legos. Ben discovered engineering and drafting courses in high school, and he credits his passion and knowledge to two of his teachers, Emmett Wemp and Roc Cox.
“Learning how drafting and engineering work made me fall in love with the field even more. That knowledge helped me firmly decide to dedicate my time and effort towards perfecting my abilities in this area.”
In November 2017, Ben participated in the launch of Idaho’s first ever satellite. He hopes to one day work with companies that design mechanical components on spacecraft. “It would be a dream come true to eventually own my own aerospace company. My ambition is to make air and space travel more easily accessible to the public.”
Ben looks forward to interacting with different types of engineering techniques from across the world while competing at WorldSkills. “I hope to be able to learn as much as I can about unique methods and practices used in other countries that will help me expand my knowledge for the future when confronted with unusual or intimidating engineering challenges.”
After WorldSkills, Ben intends to finish his degree in engineering. At the same time, he plans to work on the Northwest Nazarene University Space Development Team (in collaboration with NASA), designing small-scale CubeSat orbital satellites, and at Leavitt Engineering, working on various design projects for clients across the continent.
Quotables
On competing in the WorldSkills competition:
“It is an honor for me to be able to represent this nation at the world level and to be able to show other competing countries what we can do. Being a part of the largest delegation from the United States that has ever been organized to compete at WorldSkills, it feels great being a part of what I hope will be one of the most successful years of competition for us.”
On American ingenuity:
“America has been home to many of the great technological advancements that have occurred over the last few centuries. It’s a great feeling to be given the chance to represent American ingenuity, resourcefulness, and dedication to getting the job done.”
On SkillsUSA’s role:
“By being involved in SkillsUSA, I was able to get a taste of what exactly the drafting and engineering fields entailed in terms of work and skills needed to succeed and do well.”
