A Career in Snow Business: Brandon Mauzy, ‘18
Brandon Mauzy has always been fascinated by weather. “I was the kid who would come home from school and turn on the Weather Channel,” says the Virginia Tech transfer majoring in meteorology.
Brandon likes studying “chaotic” weather systems that have numerous variables. “I have a particular interest in severe weather. Weather is never exactly the same; it’s always changing and everyone depends on it, in one way or another.”
He hopes to land a highly competitive job with the National Weather Service after graduation from VT in May. He enjoys forecasting because he sees it as a way of helping others and possibly saving lives. It is his way of living the VT motto of “Ut Prosim, That I May Serve.”
“Severe weather happens, like tornados, and if you can be accurate about warning people, you can indirectly save lives,” says Brandon. “To me, getting an education is really about gaining some type of skill set so you can serve others.”
Brandon says he valued his time at Blue Ridge “because of the connections I made with professors and other students.” He spent most of his class time in T building, studying mathematics alongside several future VT engineering students. For his diligence, Brandon received the Frank Carver Memorial Award in Mathematics at BRCC in 2018. “It was important for me to have that comfort zone of knowing other people who were transferring to Tech,” he says.
Of a Blue Ridge education, Brandon says: “You have the opportunity here to make a lot of connections that are harder to make at a bigger school. Nothing is easy, and professors hold you to a high standard, but your experience here is what you make it.”
His decision to start at BRCC also allowed Brandon to graduate with much less debt, and because he was proactive in seeking academic and transfer advising, he could finish his degree at VT on time.
“Michelle Eye in advising was with me the whole way,” Brandon explains. “I happened to meet with her in a walk-in appointment, but we really clicked and she was so helpful.”
