Working hard in the classroom and getting involved on campus at Montgomery County Community College can lead to many amazing opportunities for students. As an engineering science student, Tom Quinn, ’25, experienced that firsthand.

During his time as a student, Quinn joined several clubs and activities MCCC offers in science, technology, engineering and math, which ultimately led him to participate in two programs at NASA, including a summer internship. In addition, in fall 2025, he transferred to Lehigh University on a scholarship, thanks to his involvement at MCCC, to study mechanical engineering.

“What you put into your experience at Montco is also what you get out of that experience,” he said. “There are a lot of opportunities that are available to you and it’s up to you ultimately to take advantage of them.”

Quinn, 25, of Royersford, started at the College in the fall of 2021 and signed up for several extracurricular activities on campus. He was president of the math club, which later became the STEM club. He was also a member of both Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges, and Mu Alpha Theta, the international mathematics honor society for high school and two-year college students. Thanks to his time in PTK, Quinn received a $10,000 per year PTK Scholarship available to transfer students at Lehigh University, a four-year partner school.

“Getting involved opens up a lot of doors that you would not have access to otherwise,” Quinn shared on the “Montco on the Move” podcast. “A lot of those opportunities that I pursued here at Montco have followed me on to Lehigh.”

At MCCC, Quinn’s hard work in the classroom paid off as well. He was an engineering, physics and math peer tutor on the Blue Bell Campus and was named to the Dean’s Commendation List. In spring 2025, he received The Max Lee Engineering Excellence Award for graduating from the STEM Division’s engineering science programs at MCCC as the top merit student.

Additionally, while at MCCC, Quinn participated in the Automation Innovation Challenge sponsored by Merck & Co., an event which brings together students from various STEM backgrounds to collaborate on a project. He was also the fabrication lead on Project Innova, the urban concept hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle team, which placed second in its division in the international Shell Eco-marathon competition.

Quinn further completed an independent study with Physics Associate Professor Kelli Corrado, combining hands-on work in the Blue Bell Campus observatory operating the telescope, as well as contributing to radio astronomy research supporting the study of gravitational waves. During the summer of 2025, Quinn was able to join a week-long tour of the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, which houses 40-foot, 20-meter and 100-meter large dish antennae.

“That was a very unique experience for me,” he said. “Getting to see not only just the enormity of some of the equipment, including the 100-meter dish, but also some of the smaller instruments such as the 40-foot dish we were able to operate. It was a very good experience to be exposed to something I feel like most people don’t get the opportunity to see.”

Quinn’s hard work and involvement in activities available on campus helped him land two opportunities at NASA. During the summer of 2024, his advisor, Math Assistant Professor Scott Vaughen, thought of him as a great candidate for the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars program. The program included a three-step process. The first step was an online research course. Based on his performance, he qualified for the second step, which was an online group project involving STEM students from across the country.

“Then the third step was presenting the project at the NASA facility in Langley, Va. Our project looked to investigate ways of making urban air mobility vehicles accessible and possible,” said Quinn. “It featured vertical takeoff drone passenger vehicles and a noise-reducing propeller design. We presented our project at the NASA facility to a panel of employees there, and they asked us questions and allowed us to elaborate on our work.”

While participating in the program, Quinn made contacts at NASA, who helped him land an internship at the facility in the summer of 2025.

“My assignment involved test engineering and operations in a 14-foot by 22-foot subsonic wind tunnel,” he said. “My specific project was to work on improving data fidelity that includes calibration techniques for wind tunnel model instruments.”

Quinn had gotten the call he’d been selected for the program while he was in a tutoring session at MCCC. The program was everything he had hoped it would be and more, he said.

“The sheer amount of information, people, facilities and technology I was exposed to helped me gain an understanding of what I want from a career path,” he said, “and reminded me why I love what I do.”

Looking back on his time at MCCC, Quinn stressed how important it is for students looking to follow in his footsteps to get involved in the opportunities the College has available on campus, make connections and work hard in the classroom.    

“Don’t be scared to reach out to people,” he said. “Whether they’re fellow students or faculty, just get involved. There’s a lot to do. You just have to know where to look. Go find it.”