Meet a Fluid Power Scholarship Winner – Allison Potts

The NFPA Education and Technology Foundation recently awarded $2,000 scholarships to students pursuing fluid power technology fields of study. Here’s one of the winners, Allison Potts. She is continuing her studies at the College of Central Florida, pursuing an A.S. degree in Advanced Manufacturing Specialization. We asked Allison about winning the scholarship.

What does winning this Fluid Power Scholarship mean to you?

Winning the scholarship means I am doing something right with my future. I had no idea I would choose this career because I wanted to be a zoologist when I first graduated from high school. Now I know what kind of career I will be following. I enjoy working with a team of intelligent people, and I hope to expand our knowledge and use it to make a new invention of some kind.

What are your career aspirations?

I want to be able to explore my knowledge by owning my own controls business. When my father retires, I plan to take over his business and continue working with controls. There are machines I will be working with that use fluid power and I look forward to it.

Why did you choose to learn about fluid power?

I was exposed to this field at an early age. Growing up, I had a vision of how things worked. I didn’t realize it until later I would be fascinated with fluid power. Watching the pressure gauge to give me an idea of how much power is being pushed through to make something move is amazing. The physics in this is mind-blowing.

What type of fluid power job do you hope to get after you graduate?

I hope to work with machines that have fluid power in them. My goal is to help customers improve the quality of their machines for better production.

Photo courtesy of KaeLeigh Grace Photography