Lane Community College Alumna Interview

Kory Bowlin

Lane Community College Alumni from the Energy Management and Building Controls Technology Program

Kory Bowlin graduated from Lane Community College’s associate degree program in Energy Management with Building Controls Technology in June 2023 and started what she calls her dream job as an energy analyst for Systems West, a West Coast engineering firm. Systems West told her that they had good experiences with previous graduates of the Lane program and actually created a new position for her.

Just three years before, Kory was searching for a new direction. She had graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in English. After finishing at Oregon, Kory had several jobs in social media, website, and blog development which had evolved into an interest in project management and then her job in facilities management. She knew she had a passion for sustainability and construction, but wasn’t quite sure how she could make an impact in those fields. Then, a chance conversation with a graduate of Lane’s Energy Management program at a social event led her to investigate it and apply.

Kory found Lane’s Energy Management program to be a perfect fit for her interests, and her life. She liked the online delivery and self-guided nature of the coursework, and found the structured scheduling of assignments to be very helpful since she was working full-time and gave Kory the flexibility to work on her assignments at times that were convenient for her. While she wasn’t able to do the 2000 hour paid apprenticeship (a benefit many other students appreciated), she was able to do an internship supervised by a faculty instructor and design engineer, Suzanne Marinello, which included writing reports and doing site visits with clients for energy audits. Susanne proved to be a great mentor, and her internship work proved to be very similar to the work she was doing with Systems West.

Asked what she would say to women thinking of a career in energy management, Kory was very encouraging, stating that she initially wondered if she could do the mechanical and math-related coursework. She was surprised that she found the math very understandable when it was applied to the mechanics of the building and she discovered new strengths in herself. As she used these new skills she felt empowered and began to look at analyzing the building numbers as figuring out a puzzle.

Now working as a full-time energy analyst, Kory enjoys the independent nature of her job, whether in the office, working from home, or doing site visits. She also enjoys collaborating with other members of the mechanical and electrical engineering team to work on larger projects like the new Phil Knight LEED Gold building at the University of Oregon. She hopes to earn additional certifications in energy management and LEED so she can do more complex projects in the future.

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