Engineering Fundamentals major served in the U.S. Marine Corps; he is transferring to the U of M to become a mechanical engineer
Logan Gerbitz, 29, is earning an A.S. in Engineering Fundamentals at Inver Hills Community College with plans to graduate in May 2025. Logan is looking forward to transferring to the University of Minnesota College of Science & Engineering to earn a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. His goal is to graduate from the U of M in May 2027.
Logan at Engineering Project Showcase Fall 2024
“I would like to work in an aerospace-adjacent design role where I could design unmanned assets that would help small unit leaders make more informed decisions on the battlefield,” Logan said, regarding his future career.
He serves as a mathematics and engineering tutor at Inver Hills, putting in about 15 hours a week. He is also a co-president of Engineering Club. He maintains a 4.0 GPA and made the Dean’s List for fall semester 2023 and spring semester 2024. During breaks and the summer months, he works full-time as a driver/warehouse associate at ABC Supply Co. Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota, averaging 40–50 hours per week.
Joan Carter, EdD, PE, serves as engineering faculty at Inver Hills. Joan appreciates Logan’s determination to build a career as a mechanical engineer.
“Logan is a leader, setting a fantastic example for all those around him,” she said. “He is a terrific student, earning at or near one hundred percent in all his work. I can see how his military background helps him in his studies, and how he works well with all other people.
“He has a kind, calm demeanor and acts professionally in all instances. He is definitely someone you want on your team. He is an asset in the classroom, asking thoughtful questions that help everyone learn. He will be an awesome engineer, creatively and intelligently solving problems.”
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Logan served in the U.S. Marine Corps for nearly 10 years. From February 2014 to April 2019 he was a section leader overseeing the training of all 30 Marines in a combat-ready unit that conducted training across the U.S. and deployed twice to Okinawa, Japan. He also supervised the security of nuclear submarines docked at Naval Base Kitsap in the state of Washington.
From May 2019 to January 2023, Logan served with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines at Twentynine Palms, California. He served as an infantry platoon sergeant and company operations chief overseeing the training and compliance to standards of all 36 Marines in the platoon. He deployed twice to Darwin, Australia.
During his time in the Marines, Logan completed a full range of military school courses, including Infantry Unit Leader, Career, Infantry Small Unit Leader, Sergeant, Advanced Mortarman, Fast Rope Master, and Intermediate Combat Hunter. He served as a Combat Marksmanship Instructor and Combat Marksmanship Coach.
“The most rewarding part about serving in the Marine Corps, especially as a leader, was watching my junior Marines learn and grow into leaders themselves,” Logan said. “I miss the camaraderie. There is a brotherhood that exists in the Marine Corps that is hard to find elsewhere.”
Logan added that his service in the U.S. Marines helped prepare him for college by increasing his discipline and attention to detail. “It also made me a hard worker who doesn’t back down from challenging problems,” he said. “I have no doubt that my success in school stems directly from lessons learned in the Marine Corps.”
Logan Gerbitz USMC gallery
Australia 2022
Infantry Small Unit Leader Course
Camp Pendleton 2021
Camp Lejeune 2018
Australia 2020
More about Logan…
Logan, Abby, and KaiserKaiser
Originally from Mukwonago, Wisconsin, Logan graduated from Immanuel Lutheran High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Class of 2013. Logan and his wife, Abby, got married just last summer. Abby teaches special education in northeast Minneapolis. The family has a 5-year-old golden doodle named Kaiser.
In his free time, Logan enjoys camping, biking, hiking, and most things outdoors. During the winter months, he likes to go downhill skiing. Logan, Abby, and Kaiser reside in South St. Paul, Minnesota.
Weekly Engineering Challenge
Logan at Engineering Project Showcase Fall 2024
Logan came up with an idea called the Weekly Engineering Challenge to get more students interested in engineering and Engineering Club. Here’s how that engagement activity came about in his own words:
I was sitting in class thinking of ways that we could increase student involvement in the Engineering Club. Then my mind kind of wandered to thinking about what I was going to get for breakfast at the coffee shop on campus. When I started thinking about Engineering Club again, I thought, “Why can’t we offer students a free coffee or something like that in reward to some kind of engineering challenge?”
When I got my breakfast that morning, I asked to talk to Julie Larson, who runs the Inver Hills Fresh Stop Café. I inquired about the possibility of offering a free drink in reward to an engineering challenge. She said that they had $5 gift cards for just that sort of thing. Next, I talked to Dr. Joan Carter, Engineering Fundamentals faculty, to find out if Engineering Club or the college had the ability to fund the Weekly Engineering Challenge. She worked with the Inver Hills Foundation to secure the funding, and I began to work out how the challenge would actually work.
Starting in the second week of spring semester 2025, an engineering/math related challenge question will be announced every week at Engineering Club, which meets in Science Building Room S-134 Thursdays from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. every week; the challenge question will also be posted on the Engineering Club bulletin board in the College Center.
Submissions will be made to gh3933yh@go.minnstate.edu. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. every Wednesday. The winner(s) will be chosen by the Engineering Club officers and overseen by Dr. Carter. If there are multiple people with the correct answer, the winner will be randomly selected from those correct answers.
The winner will receive a $5 Inver Hills Fresh Stop Café gift card that they can pick up at an Engineering Club meeting. If they are unable to make it to a club meeting, they can pick up their gift card from Dr. Joan Carter during her office hours (L-246) in the Math Center.
Additionally, we are open to question ideas from any student. If a student recommends a question that gets used in the Weekly Engineering Challenge, they will receive a $5 gift card. Question recommendations can be given at club meetings or via submission to the email listed above.
Logan Gerbitz • Q & A
Logan Gerbitz
What inspired you to study engineering at Inver Hills?
I knew that I wanted to take my first two years at a community college because I really liked the idea of having smaller class sizes. I chose engineering because I have always been interested in how things work. Additionally, I find it very satisfying when I can apply math to solve real-world problems.
What do you like best about the Engineering Fundamentals program?
I like the small size of the classes, and Dr. Joan Carter ensures that everyone feels like they can learn the material and become an engineer if they put in the work.
Three words that describe you as a college student:
DISCIPLINED. EAGER. METHODICAL.
What advice would you give military veterans about transitioning to college life?
Talk to people and make some friends. It can be hard to have a solid support network when most of your friends are spread across the country.
What key areas of mechanical engineering do you find most interesting and why?
I am interested in design and development. I really want to get into the weeds of how and why a solution works.
Three words that describe you as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran:
DISCIPLINED. DECISIVE. ADAPTABLE.
What person has influenced your life the most and why?
My parents have influenced me more than anyone else. They taught me how to be a good person and the importance of my faith. Apart from them, my Uncle Tim was the reason that I joined the Marine Corps. Unfortunately, he’s no longer with us, but his influence on my joining the Marine Corps has had a life-changing effect on me.
I learned what loyalty means and everything else that I learned in the Corp is because of him. I like to think he would be happy to know that he is still influencing me—and the Marines that I have taught from the lessons I learned from him.
If you could make one thing happen on Earth right now, what would it be?
That people have a little more empathy.
One word that best describes your experience at Inver Hills:
EYE-OPENING
Logan Gerbitz • 12 Answers
Favorite sport or physical activity: I enjoy watching/playing baseball and lifting at the gym
Place you would most like to visit: I would like to visit Germany; my grandmother and distant family immigrated from Germany, so it would be very interesting to see the places that they grew up
Most exciting thing you’ve ever done: The most exciting thing I have done was getting married and sharing my life with someone; aside from that, I did a lot of exciting things in the Marine Corps; near the top would have to be fastroping out of a helicopter onto a rooftop at night; that was an adrenaline rush that I don’t think I’ve matched; you have to make sure you don’t let go of the rope while preparing to stop your decent if the helo starts drifting off the rooftop; it was stressful, but very exciting!
Three things you would do if you won a $1 billion lottery: 1) Secure my family’s financial future 2) Contribute to the future of clean water 3) Contribute to the future of the ecosystem
Best book or movie you’ve read or seen lately: I rewatched Apollo 13 for the first time in a while, and I would highly recommend it to anyone
Time period (past or future) you would explore if you could time travel: I would like to see Egypt or Babylon at their height; the things that they could build with the technology of the time are very impressive; it would be interesting to see the methods and math that they used to make some of those things
One thing you most want to accomplish in your life: Provide for my family and ensure that they have a comfortable life
Your national bird if you were your own country: Dracula parrot—I don’t really have a reason aside from them looking cool
Dream occupation: Design engineer for a company that is looking for ways to improve the ability of small unit leaders to make ethical decisions on the battlefield, i.e., unmanned surveillance assets that would improve situational awareness
Person you would most like to meet: I think that it would be very interesting to meet President Eisenhower; he had a very difficult job in WW2 managing the most influential generals in the world and managing their collective vision; I think it is fascinating how he was able to connect their differing goals into a strategy to reunite Europe
Skill you would most like to learn and master: I would like to learn woodworking; it is a skill that I think would promote patience and precision
Most important issue or problem facing humankind: Selfishness
Engineering is creative problem-solving to improve the human condition. Using theories as well as scientific and mathematical applications, engineers imagine, design, create, and improve the world around us.
Engineers and the various engineering specialists are essential components of virtually everything we take for granted in modern civilization. You name it and you can bet engineers and engineering are involved. More engineers are needed to meet the challenges faced by the next generation.
Engineering is the backbone of civilization. Engineering and engineers deliver the groundwork for future advancements across the board, including such sectors as transportation, water resources, urban planning, the construction industry, the environment, energy production, infrastructure, and much more.
Make life safer, easier, smarter, happier, and ever honorable. As an engineering student, you’ll be making headway toward a career that can have remarkably positive effects on our day-to-day lives. Geared for innovation, engineers are engines for advancement in healthcare, technology, transport, and other key sectors of society. Ethical engineering applies a longstanding code of professional behavior that always puts people first.
Turn your love for all things engineering into a lifelong career. Our A.S. in Engineering Fundamentals gives you the credits you need to transfer with junior-year status to an engineering baccalaureate program at the University of Minnesota, UMD, MSUM, St. Cloud State, and St. Thomas. Your education at Inver Hills will be your cable-stayed bridge to academic and career success.
The Engineering Fundamentals A.S. degree program prepares you for transfer to a four-year college or university to complete a bachelor’s degree in engineering, including civil, electrical, mechanical, or other engineering disciplines. The program covers courses typically offered in first and second years of an accredited engineering curriculum in the United States.
You are strongly encouraged to become informed of the rules and requirements related to the major department at the four-year college or university where you plan to transfer. If you’re seeking to enter the engineering workforce, the program also gives you a strong foundation in engineering principles and practices. You are advised to work with academic advisors and counselors to complete a course plan.
ENGR 1000 Orientation to Engineering meets the FYE requirement for new, entering, first-time college students and/or students with fewer than 12 post-high school transfer credits. The course is especially encouraged if you’re interested in engineering as your major.
As a student in this A.S. degree program, you will complete the Engineering Core Curriculum (13–14 credits) and the General Education Curriculum (46–47 credits) for credit total of 60.
Careers in engineering are linked to a tremendous variety of subdisciplines from microfabrication to infrastructure to telecommunications to engines. As an engineering major at Inver Hills, you will develop the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills essential for rewarding careers that can help change the world for the better.
Perform engineering duties in planning and designing tools, engines, machines, and other mechanically functioning equipment. Oversee installation, operation, maintenance, and repair of equipment such as centralized heat, gas, water, and steam systems.
Mechanical Engineer is a Bright Outlook occupation and is expected to grow rapidly in the next several years.
Reported job titles
Application Engineer
Design Engineer
Equipment Engineer
Mechanical Design Engineer
Mechanical Designer
Mechanical Engineer
Product Development Engineer
Product Engineer
Project Engineer
Test Engineer
WAGES
Minnesota
Workers on average earn $94,520
10 percent of workers earn $64,420 or less
10 percent of workers earn $135,120 or more
United States
Workers on average earn $99,510
10 percent of workers earn $64,560 or less
10 percent of workers earn $157,470 or more
Starting in the second week of spring semester 2025, an engineering/math related challenge question will be announced every week at Engineering Club, which meets in Science Building Room S-134 Thursdays from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. every week; the challenge question will also be posted on the Engineering Club bulletin board in the College Center.
Place you would most like to visit: I would like to visit Germany; my grandmother and distant family immigrated from Germany, so it would be very interesting to see the places that they grew up
Your national bird if you were your own country: Dracula parrot—I don’t really have a reason aside from them looking cool
