McConnell mentors another

John McConnell is at it again, working with another creative, humble, smart young man from the Grand Valley who’s making a name for himself.

McConnell, retired physicist and founder of the Western Colorado Math and Science Center, helped form the young mind of Ryan Patterson. A Central High School graduate, Patterson is now a grown-up, happily married and living in the Denver suburbs, where he works as an electrical engineer at Lockheed-Martin.

One of the latest protégés in McConnell’s life is another strikingly sensitive and smart young man, this one from Fruita, Derek Vigil.

The valedictorian of the Fruita Monument High School Class of 2004, Vigil will begin his senior year at the University of Champagne Urbana, Ill., this fall. Before that, though, he’ll spend an intense semester in India, for which he will leave this week.

In India, Vigil will learn the local language, Hindi, and take intense course work and learn more about public health. He chose India because he wanted to further develop his empathy and understanding of a developing country.

Eventually, he hopes to earn his doctorate in physics and work on global warming.

“I have a lot of ambition with global warming,” both from a scientific and policy standpoints, Vigil said last week, during a break between a summer internship at Harvard and a semester abroad.

At Harvard, Vigil applied the science of fluid dynamics to the medicine of brain aneurysms.

Vigil wants to eventually work with alternative energy sources and energy conservation and earn his doctorate too. He’d like the collective global mindset to shift from the current use and consumptive attitude toward energy to shamefulness over energy that’s wasted.

There’s social factors too.

Environmental degradation connected to global warming “will hit some of the poorer populations first. It seems very unjust,” Vigil said.

“Global warming really needs urgent action,” he said. “Scientists need to get their ides before the public.”

Taking seemingly small actions, like turning off all lights or turning down the cooler in the summer and the heater in the winter, will make a large difference worldwide, Vigil said.

“If there is ambient light, use it,” he said. “Car dealerships don’t really need to keep lights on all night.”

“I think I’m starting to get an idea of where it is I fit in this world and how I can best use my tools and energies to help. I hope to just keep working hard to improve my scientific mind and to make myself a more responsible and complete citizen of this country and world,” Vigil wrote in an e-mail to McConnell. He will also “have whatever fun comes my way.”

He’s also decided to have fun and accept what comes his way.

“One thing is for sure, and that is that I will give it my go, and whatever comes out I will be satisfied.”

A meaningful friendship

McConnell dramatically changed Vigil’s life for the better, Vigil said.

Through Ann Kuhlman, Vigil met McConnell during his junior year in high school, “a critical point of my development,” Vigil said.

As a junior, Vigil undertook the tremendous task of organizing and teaching a summer science camp for fourth through sixth-graders at the math and science center. He prepared all the work and taught the kids how to do scientific measurements, chemistry, biology, magnetism, electricity and more, including physics.

Primarily for this work, Vigil earned a full-ride scholarship to college.

In the meantime, he learned to love McConnell.

“It changed me, to see the joy to be had by working hard,” Vigil said. “He is the biggest influence in my life, without a doubt.”

In an e-mail to McConnell, Vigil said, “You never cease to amaze and inspire me. It would not be an understatement to say that you have taught me the most of anyone, including my family, about how to be motivated and get work done in a professional setting. The humor, energy, and dogged determination that you bring to every task are what I strive for in my life as well. So, thank you for your tremendous example.”

Vigil credited McConnell in Vigil’s valedictorian speech, which brought tears to McConnell’s eyes. The thought of it still does.

McConnell speaks as highly of his young protégé.

“He is this young man with this incredible desire and feeling for the world, both wanting to use the science he knows so well and to couple that with human relations,” McConnell said. “He’s really trying to find what he can contribute to help the whole world.”

From a humanitarian viewpoint, instead of taking spring break on a beach somewhere, Vigil went to New Orleans and brought his crowbar to help people demolish homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

“He’s so bright in physics, science and math and combined with that, this caring for people, he is just extraordinary.”

Of Vigil and Patterson, McConnell said, “These kids mean so much to me personally — just the joy of having an association alike this ... something you wish other people could do. It’s mentoring kids. It’s role models, whatever the term is.

“They are just so absolutely special.”

Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.