Grace College Engineering Graduates Boasts 100% First-Time Pass Rate on FE Mechanical Exam

The 2021 Grace College engineering graduating class: Pavle Popovic, Abbott Joy and Cody Holmes, all passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Mechanical exam on their first try.  The FE exam is generally the first step in the process of becoming a professional licensed engineer and has a 71% pass rate.

“We are very pleased with the success of our graduates,” said Dr. Fred Wentorf, director of the Department of Engineering at Grace. “Their hard work in the classroom has earned them early career opportunities with top-rate companies. I’m excited to see how the Lord uses them to live out our motto, ‘engineered to serve,’” he said.

According to Joy, “The FE Mechanical exam was probably the single hardest exam I have ever taken due to both its length and level of difficulty.”

Grace helped students prepare for the exam by providing the official study guides and practice tests. The faculty also worked with students to schedule times to take the exam.

“Being prepared for this exam does not happen overnight,” said Popovic. “Our Engineering Department laid a solid foundation for us during our time at Grace,” he said.

And that solid foundation has also prepared students for success in the field.

Popovic landed his first job at Wishbone Medical, a pediatric orthopedic company, as a product development engineer, and Holmes was hired at Zimmer Biomet as a development engineer in upper extremity new product introduction. Both companies are located in Warsaw, Indiana, the Orthopaedic Capital of the World.

“I appreciate how the Grace Engineering program attempts to make every class industry-related. By teaching this way, I felt as though I was more prepared for my current job,” said Holmes. “Throughout my courses, I was assigned projects that did not have definitive answers, and it was our job to determine the answer. This was quite representative of the real world where there are not correct answers at the back of the book,” said Holmes.

Both Holmes and Popovic say that their well-networked professors at Grace helped them find their current positions.

“If I did not go to Grace, I may not have my current job,” said Holmes. “The Grace Engineering Department is staffed with experienced engineers with goals to share all they have learned with the next generation of engineers. Though the Department of Engineering at Grace is still growing, it still offers an abundant number of opportunities to prepare young engineers for the workforce,” said Holmes.

To learn more about the Grace College Department of Engineering, visit  www.grace.edu/academics/undergraduate/academic-schools-departments/sc/department-engineering/.