Finding The Best Path

Jaron Lundwall recognizes now that there was a shorter path to where he is. He graduated high school convinced he was going to be a biology professor. He leaped into his BYU education as a Physiology and Developmental Biology (PDBio) major, but quickly found his interests to be different from those of his peers. When an old friend invited Jaron to try chemical engineering, he was intrigued.

In June 2019, Jaron will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. He says he is glad he followed the path that he did. “There would’ve been a lot less learned about myself if I had focused more on becoming an ideal chemical engineer than following my interests where they led me. I think sometimes we focus too much on trying to follow an “ideal” career path and not enough on doing what’s best in the moment,” Jaron said.

Jaron joined the Honors Program during his first semester at BYU so he could have an interdisciplinary learning experience. He says this unique Honors Program experience has made him confident in his decision to change career paths. The Honors Program has also pushed Jaron to work hard as a student, including completing an Honors Thesis: "Multidisciplinary Design Optimizations for Solar-Regenerative High-Altitude Long Endurance Aircraft." Jaron says he is the most absorbed in his classes when he is actively listening and asking himself questions as class goes along. As Jaron says, he strives to be a “master of the material.”

After graduation, Jaron will work on NASA’s Space Launch System with Dynetics Technical Solutions with concurrent graduate school.