Sam Daleo ‘17 took the opportunity while at Kettering University to reach high goals and learn all he could from his co-op experience.

During his last co-op term at Kettering, Daleo was working on software architecture at Tesla in California.

“I was actively seeking out a great opportunity. I wasn’t limited in what I could do at Kettering. I found a company I really wanted to work for and went for it and it worked out,” said Daleo, a Computer Engineering major. “I was working with the most up-to-date software in a lot of areas in technology at Tesla.”

Daleo worked on a file generator long term data storage in automation testing for his thesis research and integrated his work into pre-existing software at the company. When companies are releasing a product, there is a validation cycle and with the the testing there needs to be a way to store all the information.

With Daleo’s work, he helped create a unified way to store that information.

“I collaborated a lot with others at Telsa. Everybody has something to teach you,” he said. “Being in the real world and in industry interacting with so many people over the five years I was at Kettering teaches you so much. The co-op experience is really, really valuable.”

Not only did Daleo learn from the work environment but he also learned about life in general while being in Silicon Valley. 

“I loved Tesla’s mission and what they stood for. I’m an outdoors enthusiast and I really love our planet. I liked that Tesla is moving toward solutions that are better for our environment long term. The sustainability aspect is big for me,” Daleo said. “And Silicon Valley seems like a different part of the world. It’s a huge melting pot of people from all over the world. You get to meet so many talented people. That was a really eye-opening experience for me.”

Daleo’s path to Kettering wasn’t a straight one. He started at another engineering school first, but it wasn’t exactly what he was looking for. He has always been a computer nerd, Daleo said, playing video games and breaking his family’s computer over and over again so he could fix it.

“My curiosity for computers has always been there and has just grown over the years,” he said. “Someone suggested that I check out Kettering University. And I really like the co-op opportunity, course load, curriculum and smaller size of the school.”

The co-op opportunity really stood out to Daleo. Having the chance to work while in school was appealing to him. It allowed him to really seek out work at some place that he was very interested in and not just work for the sake of making money.

“I highly encourage anyone considering going to Kettering to look at the co-op experience as a way to really see if a career is something you’re interested in going into it,” Daleo said. “You have the opportunity to really see what you’re interested in and passionate about. It’s about trial and error and learning and failing. Make sure you are doing what you want to do.”