Chris Kelly Graduates from MIT, To Begin Work for Apple

Chris Kelly, a 2010 graduate of Jasper County High School, has recently been hired by Apple Inc. Mr. Kelly graduated from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in May of this year, majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Mechatronics.

“When I first came in [to MIT], I was going to double major in Physics and Nuclear Engineering,” Mr. Kelly said.

After spending a summer at a program in Germany where he participated in physics research, he concluded that his passion did not lie in doing research (a prominent component of a career and education in physics), and he decided to major in Mechanical Engineering instead, a major which prepared him for his upcoming

position with Apple.

“For some time my junior year I was working on an engineering startup,” he said. “It didn’t really pan out.”

After he decided not to pursue his startup any longer, Mr. Kelly began to focus his attention on applying for jobs.

“I wanted to end up at a very innovative company . . . I wanted somewhere where I’d really be pushed to my limits,” he said.

Mr. Kelly entered his cover letter to Apple representatives at an MIT career fair. One of the representatives pressed him with questions that made him feel as if he were in an on-the-spot job interview. Because this was such an unusual occurrence at a career fair, he assumed his chances at getting the job were “out the window.”

He was wrong. He soon received an e-mail inviting him to a second-round interview in Cupertino, California, where the Apple, Inc. headquarters is located. The interview process consisted of 8 rounds of rigorous interviews. At a dinner banquet following the interviews, a representative from an advanced manufacturing group at Apple spoke to Mr. Kelly, telling him that he was impressed with his application. Mr. Kelly realized that he was interested in working in that specific area of the company and ranked it first on a further application.

He said that while he was in Cupertino, he was amazed by what he saw in the Apple manufacturing department. He was impressed with their innovative process, and any doubts he had about working at Apple dissolved.

“They really push their manufacturing to the edge,” he said.

Having attended one of the world’s most prestigious universities and now having been hired by one of the world’s most influential companies, Mr. Kelly is one of the most successful college graduates to emerge from Jasper County High School in recent memory. In order to be accepted to MIT and open up his future as a successful engineer, Mr. Kelly acknowledges the work he had to put in at the high school level.

Mr. Kelly joined the Technology Student Association (TSA) as a high school sophomore and became vice president of the club in hopes of growing it to the strength of FBLA, one of the most active clubs at JCHS.

“It was a lot of planning on my part,” he said.

He worked with Mr. Knapp, a former JCHS technology teacher, to arrange for TSA to go to tournaments and leadership conferences so that officers could receive training. At a leadership conference, he met TSA state officers and realized he wanted to run for state office himself in attempts to grow as much as he could within the organization. He went to TSA state competition for the first time as a junior, where he ran for TSA State Vice President and won the election.

He said he learned a lot from “that magnitude of leadership,” such as “how to speak to an audience of 300 to 500 people.”

“I wrote about that a lot in my MIT application,” he added, noting that his TSA leadership was likely influential to his acceptance.

Also important to his acceptance was his participation in the MIT Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science program after his junior year at JCHS, which led him to believe that MIT was the right choice for him and helped him make a decision when he was also accepted to Stanford University.

Mr. Kelly believes in the importance of education, and encourages students still in high school to try to learn as much as possible even if they are limited in the educational resources they have. In order to be successful, he emphasizes the importance of an open mind and determinedly seeking out opportunities. He also acknowledges the role his parents played in encouraging his academic success.

“Learning how to fight for your own knowledge [is important],” he said. “People don’t have to stick to the status quo!”

According to Mr. Kelly, college is an experience that has value beyond simply securing a degree.

“You learn how people work,” he said. “Going through an experience like college and seeing that level of diversity . . . really just enhances your understanding of the world and its social constructs.”

He also said that college teaches you “how to better yourself in terms of not being frustrated by what seems like random acts.”

After realizing the causes and backgrounds of various situations and people, after “seeing what’s out there and what needs to be changed,” he said, we can ask the question “how do we work towards bettering society as a whole?” and then begin to look for a solution.

Mr. Kelly will begin his job at Apple in August after spending the summer traveling around the world with his girlfriend to South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. He said that the trip will begin in Lima, Peru, and end in San Francisco.