Just tracking this Porter resident’s educational pursuit is an exercise in exhaustion

Anthony Kmitta’s educational pursuit makes the energizer bunny look like a slacker.

As a Purdue University Calumet engineering student, the 24-year-old LaPorte native and Porter resident put nearly 180,000 miles on two cars, traveling to and from campus, home and job/co-op assignments.

When the engine of his 1995 Monte Carlo died, he and his dad replaced it—three times.

During the spring of 2007, he juggled his final two undergraduate classes, two graduate courses, a full time job in South Bend and proposed to his now wife, Kathleen, whom he met when both were resident assistants a year earlier at Purdue Calumet’s University Village.

He is completing his first year as a process control engineer at ArcelorMittal. He also leads a men’s group and oversees community outreach efforts at his church.

Kmitta looks forward to catching his breath Sunday (5/18), when he graduates with a Master of Science in Engineering degree, complete with management-specific electives during Purdue Calumet Commencement Exercises.

As to how, and perhaps more importantly, why, he embraced such an exhaustive schedule in pursuit of two Purdue degrees, he said, “I was motivated; I wanted to get it done, because I thought it would only be more difficult if I waited.”

While the electrical engineering degree he earned in 2007 satisfied one of his goals, a visit to a job fair at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus convinced him that a master’s degree would make him more marketable.

Previously, to gain important leadership and supervisory experience, as well as a better feel for campus life, he worked for more than half a year as one of Purdue Calumet’s first resident assistants.

Then there were the co-ops: opportunities to apply his engineering education and gain experience during summers of full time work with an industrial employer. His co-op jobs landed him in South Bend, Detroit and South Bend again. In fact, 150-mile round trip drives between home, his co-op job at Robert Bosch Corp., Automotive Chassis Division in South Bend and campus were common place for Kmitta during the summer of 2006.

The following fall and spring, he interned full time at Bosch and took a full course load at Purdue Calumet.

“I made the trip from work to school three to four times a week and worked five days a week,” he said.
“You have to be committed to your goals. It takes a lot of time management; I made sure I scheduled two-hour blocks to study each day.”

This coming summer, through his job with ArcellorMittal, he looks forward to traveling internationally with his wife, who is on track to earn a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy next fall.

Then?

Come next fall, Kmitta is entertaining thoughts of teaching a course at Purdue North Central, where he began his university education in 2002. “In a year and a half,” he said, “I plan on starting an MBA in finance.”

News Release Date: May 14, 2008