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Talking Shop with Students, Literally

Steve Earp mentors engineering students at Pratt’s Student Machine Shop

Steve Earp, center in black, chats with visiting student shop managers from colleges across the country during a conference Earp organized this past summer. Photo courtesy of Ken Kingsley.
Steve Earp, center in black, chats with visiting student shop managers from colleges across the country during a conference Earp organized this past summer. Photo courtesy of Ken Kingsley.
Interviewed by Bryan Roth

Name: Steve EarpPosition: Manager of Student Machine Shop, Pratt School of EngineeringYears at Duke: 11 over two stints

What I do at Duke: I manage the shop where, after they’ve taken a safety course, Pratt students can manufacture projects for academic courses. I try to guide them as best I can without limiting their learning experience because some of it is failing to learn how to do something. We have a laser, mill, plasma cutter saws and more. I make sure everyone walks out with the same number of fingers and toes.

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If I had $5 million, I would: Start with some repairs on my house, then pay off some of the student loans for my favorite students so they could enter the world debt free. I’d want to purchase the Duke Motorsports team their own building so they can have resources and technology to take their work to the next level.

My first ever job: I worked at a Star Foods on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard in front of South Square Mall. I was 16 and took it on as an after school job while I also worked at a theater. I did that for about four years until I got accepted into a tool and die apprenticeship program through the state.

My dream job: I really like what I do now because I like seeing students learn and use talents to create things that haven’t been created yet or learn the skills to make new things. Then they use those skills to better the companies they work for after graduation. If I had to pick, my ultimate dream job would be director for all the student shops at Duke.

If someone wanted to start a conversation with me they should ask me about: Something dear to my heart is our student shop manager conference we held at Duke last summer. After getting approval, I began to find people in the position I hold at other colleges and invited over 100 with a little over 60 showing up. We had people from Hawaii, Georgia, Virginia, Minnesota and California. We talked about best practices for student shops and how we could bounce ideas off each other. I could tell it was a success because during lunch on the second day, it was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself speaking. 

What I love about Duke: The energy of the students and their ability to work on projects among all the other things going on. It’s amazing how much they get done in one day and makes me strive to be better. I want them to come to my shop and learn on the best machines with the best products so they can be better when they get into the workforce.

Something most people don’t know about me: I was a captain of the volunteer fire department and emergency response team in Greenville, South Carolina. One day I was talking to a volunteer and he convinced me to be one, too. A couple months later, I was picked to be captain. I enjoyed helping people, especially those in distress.