Featured Alumni

Patrick Blanda

Saint Paul College Electronic Technology Program, 2006

Every system required to land an airplane is mission critical, from the sensors on the ground to the computers in the control tower. While designers build redundancies and warning systems into the equipment used to guide aircraft flight paths and landings, the job of keeping that equipment running perfectly falls on technicians who need to be competent, well trained, and cool headed.

For recent Saint Paul College graduate Patrick Blanda, performing under pressure is practically second nature. A former U.S. Marine sergeant who helped maintain radar-jamming jets that protect fighter and bomber pilots in Afghanistan and Iraq, Blanda recently completed an equipment repair internship with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. He expects to be back at the airport later this year after completing specialized training at an FAA school in Oklahoma City, Okla. "The job is something I would never have thought of until my teacher called and said it was available," recalls Blanda. "I thought, 'That's a great opportunity.'"

The opportunity was a six-month long internship that Saint Paul College recently became qualified to award, says Gregory Rasmussen, an electronics instructor at the College. Two years ago, the College began working with the FAA to become certified as an FAA-approved training program for electricians. The certification includes the opportunity to place one or more students with the FAA as interns. Blanda was the first person chosen for the plum assignment.

Steady Climb

While Blanda never expected to land a job with the FAA when he began the Electronic Technology program two years ago, he's long been on a path toward such a career. Blanda, 24, grew up in the Twin Cities suburb of Maplewood and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps immediately after graduating from Tartan High School. "I'd always wanted to go into the military," says Blanda, and for five years he lived that dream.

His technical aptitude led the Marines to train him as a jet electrician, working mostly on the EA-6B Prowler, a plane that protects strike aircraft, ground troops, and ships by jamming radar signals and other communications. His skills led to deployments in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. After completing his service, he enrolled in Saint Paul College's Electronic Technology program.

The program has prepared him well for work with the FAA. "I'm using the things I learned in school-even though I initially didn't think I would," says Blanda, who remembers, for example, wondering why electronics technicians needed to know how to use the DOS computer operating system. But, as he notes, he now uses it regularly on the job. "I actually use all of the theory and all of the components I learned."

At the airport, Blanda will have the title of airway transportation system specialist. He will be working with equipment in the air traffic control tower and the flight line. The equipment differs from the military jets he had maintained, but "all the electronic know-how is the same," he says.

While Blanda is looking forward to a long career with the FAA, Rasmussen hopes the Electronic Technology program will continue to place one or two students with the FAA each year. The ability to provide training that connects students to specialized, often high-paying jobs is "great for the program and great for the students," he says.

Mary Lahr Schier is a Northfield-based freelance writer.