The education I received at Vermont Technical College was deeply edifying to my calloused hands. The math perfectly reflected my experience with materials and gave me an instant sense of the specific forces I've been working with and against my entire life. Material testing as per ASTM standards was equally interesting, where I designed a popsicle stick tower which held 1,607 times its own weight despite an execution error. It held the record for two years before being bested by an excess of gorilla glue.