Class of 2021 Celebrates Midyear Commencement

An electrical engineer whose mastery of small business skills supercharged his career and
a graduating civil engineer on his way to an MBA are showcased speakers at Michigan
Technological University’s 2021 Midyear Graduation.

The ceremony, at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the College student Enhancement Sophisticated Varsity Gymnasium, is the instant just about 500 Huskies have been waiting around for as recipients of tricky-earned bachelor’s, master’s and
Ph.D. degrees. They’ll be dealt with by university student speaker Jay Czerniak, a civil engineering
big from Medford, Wisconsin, who graduates with a small in philosophy and ethics.

Creating a Dazzling Long run — and Ice Cathedrals

Czerniak’s Michigan Tech tale is crafted on a basis of family members and faith. He found
a second relatives at Tech as a member of St. Albert the Wonderful College Parish, regarded for its near-knit, welcoming local community and its steadfast and stellar MTU
Winter Carnival participation by the several years — including the somewhat new tradition
of developing an ice cathedral for outdoor expert services on Carnival weekend.

“I will be eternally grateful to St. Al’s and for all individuals who have served me increase
not only as a expert but as a human staying in the course of my time at Tech,” explained Czerniak,
whose time at MTU is not more than. He returns to campus in spring semester 2022 to pursue
a master’s in company administration (MBA). In June, he programs to return to Wisconsin to start out his occupation as a challenge
manager with Miron Construction, wherever he previously interned. 

“I hear usually that faith is missing in college or university but at Michigan Tech, with the secret
of science and miracles of a beautiful normal earth, there is ample opportunity to
mature and mature in one’s religion.”Jay Czerniak, Midyear Graduation University student Speaker

“Michigan Tech was my dream university,” claimed Czerniak, who discovered about Tech from introductory
engineering classes at his high college made available via Project Guide the Way. “It topped the listing for educational facilities in the Midwest. My really like for snow, the outdoors and
a want for a compact-city atmosphere designed Tech the perfect place for me. Finding a
significant was also straightforward. My grandfather operated his personal compact excavating corporation. From
a youthful age he aided expose me to the entire world of building. I was instantly hooked.
Civil engineering is the great major to workout my passion for construction and style and design as perfectly as
my need to engineer and difficulty resolve.”

Making a Management Legacy — and Household Traditions

The other Husky headlining Saturday’s function is commencement speaker Mike Pulick Jr., who constructed an outstanding vocation via building the organization leadership skills
he initial acquired at Tech. The 1986 electrical engineering (EE) graduate also understands about pursuing in family footsteps — and in his case, those people
methods led to incredible family members ties with Michigan Tech. 

A indigenous of Livonia, Michigan, Pulick credits Tech as the portal to the leadership
competencies he created in a vocation that started at Normal Electrical (GE). There, the previous
MTU Blue Crucial President, who led the large organizational work to phase Michigan Tech’s legendary Wintertime Carnival, took the upcoming move in his career by finishing GE’s Production Management Application. 

“The combination of these two encounters in management and management definitely served
me in my job. I would go on to choose on foreseeable future roles and cases that associated
primary a extensive wide variety of persons,” mentioned Pulick, who later on gained his MBA from The
College of Chicago. 

Just after 12 several years in several GE divisions, in 1999 Pulick joined W.W. Grainger Inc.,
ascending from vice president of solution provider administration to president of Grainger
Global. In 2015, Pulick joined the personal equity agency Warburg Pincus, wherever
he was executive in home for the industrial and business enterprise service sector via
2019. 

Recent chairman of the Michigan Tech Fund Board of Directors, Pulick also serves on the Wencor Team, Kano Laboratories and Wittichen Provide boards
of administrators, and is an adjunct professor at Florida Gulf Coast College in the
Lutgert Faculty of Small business. He also served on the Michigan Tech Faculty of Business Dean’s Advisory Council for 5 yrs. 

In holding with his dedication to expose STEM (science, technologies, engineering and
math) college students and gurus to business, financial and management activities,
Pulick also formerly served on the Illinois Institute of Engineering Board of Trustees
and the board for Junior Achievement of Chicago. 

Pulick has a lot more than his individual graduation to reflect on as he requires the speaker’s podium
Saturday. A few of his siblings graduated from Tech with engineering degrees. His more mature sister majored in mechanical engineering, his younger sister in environmental engineering and his brother in civil engineering. 

But wait around. It gets greater.

“My more mature sister, young sister and I all married MTU engineers,” Pulick mentioned. 

Pulick’s favorite Michigan Tech memory is assembly his wife, Liz. “I was a junior,
she was a freshman,” he mentioned. “Our very first day was at the theater in Hancock.” The
couple of 33 yrs married in June 1988, soon just after she earned her mechanical engineering degree.

Liz and Michael Pulick reside in Naples, Florida. The few enjoys northern Michigan
summers in Petoskey, Michigan and shelling out time with family members, including their two adult
little ones, Eric and Rachael, and spouses Kelsey and Matt.

Developing Aspirations — and Life-prolonged Tech Connections 

Kanwal Rekhi, a visionary who has routinely labored to forward entrepreneurial skills
and academic chances at Michigan Tech and all over the earth, will get
the Melvin Calvin Medal of Difference all through Saturday’s occasion. The medal is awarded to persons involved with Michigan
Tech who, like its Nobel prize-winning namesake, have exhibited terribly distinguished experienced and individual
accomplishments. Rekhi, who earned his master’s in electrical engineering from MTU
in 1969, is taking care of director of Inventus Capital Partners in California.

Kristin Kolodge will provide the traditional Alumni Welcome to the graduating course.
The 1995 mechanical engineering graduate at this time serves as MTU Alumni Board president and is govt director of human device interface at J.D. Energy.

Michigan Technological University is a community investigate university established in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is house to much more than 7,000 students from 55 countries all-around the entire world. Persistently rated between the finest universities in the nation for return on financial commitment, the College delivers far more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree systems in science and technologies, engineering, computing, forestry, enterprise and economics, wellness professions, humanities, arithmetic, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is positioned just miles from Lake Excellent in Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, providing year-spherical chances for out of doors experience.