Just call it the work of playtime. Student Sam Ryan of Kettering University gets paid to break toys for toy manufacturing giant Fisher-Price.
“I work as a Plastic Material Engineer for Fisher-Price in New York,” the Mechanical Engineering major said. “I suggest materials and do durability studies – if there is a way to break a toy, we want to know about it before it hits the market,” he explained. “It entails working with designers and product development engineers to troubleshoot and improve current plastic materials used in our toys, as well as researching and developing materials for new products.”
Having fun smashing toys wasn’t Ryan’s original plan for college. “I came to Kettering thinking I would work on cars, until my first co-op job led me to specialize in polymers,” Ryan explained. “Kettering is teaching me to be an innovator, teaching me to always look for improvements. I recommend that today’s students take a lesson from my experiences and be open to all opportunities.”
Fisher-Price is among the 550 businesses and industries that hire Kettering students for jobs around the country these days. Petteway said that long-time supporter General Motors still employs the most Kettering co-op students, but today’s employer list includes Beaumont Hospital, General Electric, the U.S. Air Force, Argonne National Laboratories and the ever-popular DisneyWorld.