Student Experience: Suzanne Weber

“I’m proof that you can start a new career later in life. I am currently taking my first steps into CAD designing, which is a stage beyond CAD drafting.

“I began working as a retail buyer, stopped working for a while when my children were young, and then worked part time as a bookkeeper. When I took a job doing office work for an engineer, I tried my hand at CAD and enjoyed it enough to take a course in it. One course led to another, and within a short time I had earned an associate degree. It was possible with Dallas College because the courses were at night and mostly done through the workshop experience, where they can be done any time you have time.

“Much thanks to Dr. Mike Kirkpatrick [retired former program coordinator] for allowing me to tailor-make some of my course assignments around the work I was doing at my job at that time so that they were more ‘real world’ projects. I currently work for a great engineering firm, and although much of what I learned about civil engineering has been on the job, I did need a solid AutoCAD foundation. Thanks to Dallas College for getting me there.”

Suzanne Weber earned an associate degree in Computer Aided Design and Drafting. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising from Oklahoma State University. In her job as a CAD technician for Teague Nall & Perkins, a civil engineering firm, Suzanne works directly with engineers creating plans with AutoCad and ArcGIS that are used in civil engineering projects, primarily for land development issues such as water, sewer, storm drain and paving. She is responsible for understanding detailed aspects of the project so that she can create an accurate set of drawings.

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