Kevin Uyekawa kicked off this year’s Father’s Day weekend at EWU’s June All-Campus Commencement celebration, where he proudly accepted a Bachelor of Science diploma in front of his father, John Kovar, and his own son, Kaleb.
Kevin credits a supportive family with helping him reach the finish line.“It’s kind of nice that it’s all happening at the same time,” commented Uyekawa, as he met up with his family after commencement.
While parenting Kaleb as a single dad, he earned a 3.97 GPA as a tightly scheduled mechanical engineering student juggling a 25-hour-a-week paid internship in Spokane Valley, with classes in Cheney and homelife in Spokane.
Less than a month after receiving his diploma, this top grad started a full-time engineering position at Spokane Valley’s Keytronic, the value-added contract manufacturing firm where he held that internship.
Uyekawa says that EWU’s “well-rounded” engineering program, with its helpful staff and dedicated instructors, helped him prepare for this quick start to his engineering career. As a full-time, benefitted employee, Uyekawa will work in Keytronic’s automation and design department, designing final-stage products and automation fixtures.
“It’s the exact type of engineering I want to do,” says Uyekawa, 42, who is a first-generation student.
He credits support from his family, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Technology and the EWU Retirees Association, which provided him with a scholarship leading into his senior year, for helping him reach the finish line.
The scholarship reduced financial pressures, which included expenses for after-school childcare for Kaleb, who was entering kindergarten. It also provided a well-deserved pat on the back that helped motivate Uyekawa through the last leg of his academic journey.
“I had a lot of support from the scholarship – and the faculty. Even the people who worked in the engineering department, not just the professors, but the staff also.”
Originally from Temecula, California, Uyekawa was working as a technician at The Tire Store in Spokane when Kaleb was born. He recalls thinking, “I want to be able to support my kid and be able to get out of an apartment and into a house, what am I going to do?”
So Uyekawa, whose uncle is an engineer, enrolled at Spokane Falls Community College, earning his associate of pre-engineering. He then, after considering his higher education options, decided to transfer to EWU to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
During his senior year, Uyekawa was on a team with four other mechanical engineering students who “crushed it” at the university’s annual Capstone Expo. Together, Uyekawa and his team combined their expertise in electronics, sensors, load analysis and target specs to create an automated can crusher that worked in a nanosecond to thoroughly flatten cans.
“The capstone project was a really great wrap-up for the end of my time at Eastern,” he says. “There was a lot of crossover between my job and here, with this project.”
Uyekawa went on to receive the Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Student Award from EWU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and was honored at commencement with a gold stole, a tribute he wore in celebration of his high GPA.
After graduating with minimal college debt and moving on to a job he loves, Uyekawa is now saving for a down payment on a home. This fall, he plans to connect with a Realtor to fulfill the dream of purchasing a place with a “good-sized yard” so Keleb can get a puppy.
When he looks back at the pivotal moment when he chose to transfer to EWU after graduating from SFCC, Uyekawa says he’s sure he made the right call.
“I just really enjoyed my time here at Eastern,” Uyekawa says. “I was on the fence between Gonzaga or EWU when I was transferring from Spokane Falls – and I’m really glad I made the choice to come here.”
