Success Stories

Joel Gasper

Sometimes inspiration springs up in surprising places. Joel Gasper finds it in the hockey rink, in RMU engineering classrooms and in the fertile farmlands of Minnesota’s Red River Valley.

For Gasper, these motivators have roots as deep as the sugar beets grown on his family farm. “We've got one local radio station, one favorite sport, and one way of life,” he says of his hometown.

Gasper traveled the 2,780 miles to Robert Morris University for a chance to play Division I hockey and to earn his engineering degree. And each summer he returns to Minnesota to hone those hockey skills—and apply his engineering and management talents to help run a more profitable farm. “Farming and hockey have a lot in common,” Gasper says. “You’re up early and you work hard.”

With his strong work ethic, it’s little wonder Gasper’s RMU classmates know him as a hockey team standout, and that this rallying force earned the Most Inspirational Player Award for two years running. But Gasper keeps it all in perspective. “I know what my dad does every day to keep a farm going. The way I see it, playing hockey and going to college at RMU are absolute privileges.”

“I haven’t had a single professor who wasn’t willing to help me, anytime.”

“My dream has always been to play Division I collegiate hockey and maybe go pro and then go back to help run my family farm in Minnesota. But now I have my degree in manufacturing engineering so I have lots of career options.”

“So if you’re looking for a great college experience, but one that’s more personable than at the huge schools— where you can make friends not only with other students, but more importantly, with your professors—then Robert Morris is the place for you.”

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