Oral History Program Chase D. Heninger Interviewed by Victor McPeck 20 April 2008 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Chase D. Heninger Interviewed by Victor McPeck 20 April 2008 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Heninger, Chase, an oral history by Victor McPeck, 20 April 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Chase D. Heninger. It is being conducted on April 20, 2008 at the residence of Mr. Heninger in Ogden, UT and concerns his experience as a student at Weber State University. The interviewer is Victor L. McPeck. VM: Today is April 20, 2008. My name is Victor McPeck. Today, I have the privilege of interviewing Chase Heninger. How are you doing today, Mr. Heninger? CH: I am good. Thanks for asking. VM: Excellent, first things first, when is your birth date? CH: I was born March 14, 1985. VM: Okay. Where were you born? What is your place of origin? CH: I was born at Mckay Dee Hospital, here in Ogden, Utah. I've been raised in Ogden, Utah my entire life. I still reside in Ogden. VM: I take it you like Ogden? CH: I do. I've enjoyed it. I went to high school here in Ogden, as well as college. I am currently employed with an insurance company in South Jordan. I commute between the Ogden area and South Jordan, but still call Ogden home. VM: That's quite the commute. CH: It’s do-able. VM: The topic for today is your experiences with Weber State. I understand you're a recent graduate? 1 CH: I am. I graduated May of 2007 with my Bachelor's degree in Automotive Technology and I also graduated fall of 2006 with my Associate's, so I did back to back graduations. VM: That’s quite an accomplishment. Why, exactly, did you choose Weber State? CH: I graduated from Bonneville High School and coming out of there I thought about going to a couple of different universities in the area but I wanted to stay local to Utah. I thought about maybe Utah State, or University of Utah, possibly even Dixie, or one of the Southern Utah schools. I liked Weber State because it's close to my home, and then the most important thing, I got an academic scholarship to Weber State. That really helped make my decision for me. VM: What kind of scholarship? CH: It was, as I remember, an academic scholarship for having a high GPA in high school that, I believe, covered a semester, possibly two. I think it might have been two semesters. VM: That's good enough motivation. What was your original minor, or major? What did you go into college for? What were your career goals? CH: I had originally planned to go into pharmacy. I started at Weber State in the prepharmacy program with a chemistry major. I thought about completing the pharmacy school at the University of Utah. So that’s how I started at Weber, was as a Chemistry major. VM: What were your initial thoughts about the program? How did you like the classes? CH: I really liked the professors. The main professor I had was Seager and I liked the way he taught. I also had a good time in the labs. The lab room was in the opposite building 2 of the lecture hall, up on the top floor. We had a good time doing the experiments. I had a couple of friends in the class and we had good times there. The lectures were good. They got into some very hard to understand topics at some point but overall it was a good experience. VM: Okay, so you said you got your degree in Automotive Technology? CH: Yes. VM: What inspired this change of careers? CH: It was because of the chemistry courses. All the generals and everything were good and I enjoyed doing the general courses. Some of the chemistry finals and exams that we had—the students yielded very poor test results yet it was still passing. I remember one, I think it was a midterm, where the class average was a forty-eight percent and after the curve that was passing. I didn't like the idea of missing over half the material and being okay with that. So one day, I remember the specific day. It was an afternoon class walking out of the Lind Lecture Hall and it was after we got those test results and looking around and I was like, “You know, that didn't do it for me.” I had one of my friends who I had one of the lab classes with, was with me in that same lecture class. We were walking out together and he commented that, “I've always enjoyed working on cars, and anything automotive. Maybe I should pursue something like that.” It was on the way from out of the Lind Lecture Hall, across the street to the W parking lot, on the other side of the street that I made the decision not to be a chemistry major anymore. VM: Alright, that's quite the experience that made you change. CH: Yes. 3 VM: Your views, I agree with you that I'd feel pretty down fifty- percent, only doing half was acceptable. CH: It wasn't good news. VM: What did you think of the general education courses that you did? CH: I liked them. I never had to take a math course at Weber State, so I didn't get to experience the math courses that seem to give everybody so much trouble. I was able to pass the AP calculus test back in high school, so that gave me the quantitative literacy credit. I didn't get to experience the math courses. I enjoyed the humanities courses. I had an anthropology professor that I really enjoyed, liked his style of teaching—Davies was his name. He reminded me of like a real life Indiana Jones. His course really stands out in my mind. VM: What was it about his course that— CH: I loved listening to his stories. He would tell stories about the different archeological digs that he went on and I enjoyed listening to his stories. I'm trying to think of some of the other general courses that come to mind. The art credit, I'm not very artistic, so I didn't look forward to taking the art, having to draw, or even particularly having to learn about art. I took the theater course that satisfied the art credit—Intro to Theaters, we got to watch some movies. I'm a big movie fan, so I enjoyed that. VM: Can you think of any other professors or classes that really stood out? CH: In generals? VM: Yes. 4 CH: I really enjoyed the TBE class that we had to take, the Telecommunications and Business Education. I registered late that semester, I remember, so the only TBE course that was left was at seven forty-five in the morning. I thought to myself, “There is no way I'm gonna make it to every one of those classes that early.” But that is one of the only classes that I made it to every class. I really like the professor, Porter, Joyce Porter. She was actually a teacher back at Bonneville high school and had gone over to Weber State. I liked her at Bonneville and had her again at Weber State. I thought that that was really fun. I like doing those classes. Plus, getting to campus that early in the morning, I was able to get a parking spot every morning. VM: Fantastic. That's obviously a huge benefit to an early morning class, maybe the only benefit. Let's move on to your basic field of study. What was your overall experience in the automotive program? CH: Loved it, absolutely loved it. The automotive program is set up as all of the other departments in COAST are set up—the College of Applied Science and Technology, as a two plus two program, where we do our two-year associate's degree with work experience concurrent. Then you do the additional two years to get your bachelor's degree, for that two-plus-two way of doing it. I did my two, my associate's degree in Automotive Service Technology, with the emphasis in independent shop or aftermarket. Weber State also offered programs from all of the major manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, a collision repair program. Then near the end of my time there they introduced the Ford program as well. I completed the fouryear bachelor's program. But, I really like the two-year program because I worked at an aftermarket parts warehouse the whole time I went to college to give me some spending 5 money. I was doing the starving student thing. I enjoyed working at the warehouse at the same time as going to school. I could get the credit for the work experience. In that aftermarket program, or I should say, the two-year program, all of the courses focused on the hands on and technical aspects of the vehicles—how to work on them, the different systems. One course that comes to mind was the automatic transmission course. The automatic transmission is the most complicated piece of equipment designed for an automobile, so it was interesting to have a course that studied those. The thing I liked the most about the hands on part of the automotive program were the assignments. In that automatic transmission course there was some bookwork and then some pen and paper testing near the end of the course. The assignment was that we were each given an Allison Series transmission by General Motors. Each one had a log book of where it was left off at the end of last semester, whether it was fully functioning with all forward gears and reverse gears, and if it had some issues. If we got a transmission that was fully functioning before, we had to completely disassemble it down to the transmission case itself and then reassemble it, put it on the transmission dyno at the end of the course. If it still worked we got an ‘A’ and if it didn't, they would grade accordingly. If we got one of the transmissions that had some issues, if we improved upon those issues, and made it fully functional, we got an ‘A’, etc. The transmission we got had issues coming to us. I think when we got it had maybe, one or two forward gears out of six, and one of the two reverse gears. By the time we were done with it, I think we had all but one of the forward gears and both reverse gears. So, some good times there. 6 VM: You mentioned—any professors within the program that particularly helped you in your career? CH: Yes, for sure. My, my main advisor through the two-year program was Steve Stuart, who is an instructor there in the automotive department, as well as the advisor for the independent shop, and I believe, the heavy duty truck programs now. He was great because he would come into the parts warehouse and discuss with my manager, make sure that everything was going well for the concurrent enrollment and make sure I was developing the way I should be. He also was great with his advice and experience in the classroom. He was a warranty auditor for General Motors for a number of years in the Salt Lake area. He was a technician before that, I believe. Then he was, I believe, an instructor in the General Motors program and then was the lead advisor for the aftermarket program as well. VM: Wow, that's quite a bit. CH: Yes. VM: Sounds like a pretty hands on professor that took particular interest in his students. CH: Yes, he was. VM: Were there any particular students in your program that perhaps, you helped or helped you along the way? CH: I remember my area of expertise wasn't so much the hands on stuff. So I had to play catch up on a lot of the hands on techniques and ways to go about repairs. I did know a lot of the other kids in the program were just the opposite and struggled in some of the 7 paperwork and testing sides of the things. So I got to show them some better study techniques and testing taking skills and they helped me do some of the hands on work. VM: So would you say the students in the automotive program were tight knit, or more just for themselves in there? CH: I would say all the students in the automotive program related very well. We all got along very well in the automotive program and then we would be out doing our own thing in the general education classes. But whenever we'd see another automotive student in a class that wasn't automotive we would always sit next to each other because it was just somebody you knew, and you get along with. If it was a group project in that other course you'd always try to get into the same group so you could get it all done. VM: Terrific. We talked a lot about the nitty-gritty part of school, just the classes. Were there any activities, recreational or otherwise, that you participated in while at Weber State, probably sponsored by Weber State? CH: I was not very active in the extracurricular activities at Weber State. I know they had a lot of sports activities, football games and all that. I'm not a big sports fan. I do remember going to an occasional football game. If that's what everybody was doing, I'd go with them. So I did see the football team up there at the stadium. I remember not really going to any of the activities or dances or anything like that. One thing that does come to my mind was standing in line for parking passes overnight. It was the first year they decided they were going to sell parking passes online. I thought, “Well that's a great idea.” So they opened up the system at seven o'clock that morning. Over, I think, twelve thousand people logged on at the same time to try and buy their parking passes. 8 The system crashed and no parking passes were sold to anybody. So they decided the online way of doing it wasn't probably the best way. We went back to the show up and wait in line to get your parking pass. The passes went on sale Saturday morning at seven o’clock. We showed up at six o'clock pm the previous night to get in line. We were probably fifty or so people back from the front of the line. We got to stay and hang out all night. That was fun hanging out with all the students just overnight trying to stay awake. People had brought little TV's, picnic stuff with blankets and stuff to lay on. We had our little portable DVD player and watched some stupid movie. So that's my biggest memory that comes to mind of the extracurricular activities, was hanging out with everybody overnight, waiting for parking passes. VM: It wasn't really intended to be something social, but it just— CH: But it turned into one, yes. VM: Fantastic. You mentioned that parking seems to be— CH: A recurring theme? VM: A recurring theme and dare I say, a frustration? CH: Yes, absolutely. VM: Could you possibly go into more detail about— CH: Never, ever did we have enough parking spaces. Like I said, when I had that TBE class really early in the morning I was always able to get a parking spot close to the building that I didn't have to walk very far so that was good. But for the bulk of my first two years it was show up in the eight to nine o'clock which was the worst time to get a parking spot. I'd end up parking, I wanna say in the W4 or W5 up above the science buildings. 9 Then my courses would take me from the science buildings down into buildings one through four, into the social science building and then back up into the automotive building which is right below the science building, so it was on the way. It wasn't until my last semester there that I did that wait in line overnight, and got the A parking pass and was able to park in the A parking lot right in front of the automotive building. I'm going to guess-timate fifteen feet away from my desk. It was fantastic. VM: That's quite the drastic difference in distance. CH: Yes. It cut walk time from class, when you'd have to park way up at those W lots, with approximately fifteen minutes of walk time down to about a fifteen minute drive time and walk time when I had that A parking pass. I could leave and be in my seat within fifteen minutes of walking out my door. VM: Fantastic. Besides trouble with parking, it seems like you flew right through Weber State that you had a good experience and went straight through. CH: I did. I did the two-plus-two program, so I enrolled right out of high school and graduated with my bachelor’s degree four years later. I didn't do any summer classes at Weber State. The only summer courses I did were some of the concurrent enrolment for work hours. I wasn't able to get anything out of the way there. I did have some credit that carried over from high school which saved me some time and money, as far as that. I'm always at the mindset to focus on it and get it done in the four years, not draw it out and spin my wheels. VM: Fantastic. Since you went straight through, did you have any trouble with the paperwork, getting graduated? 10 CH: Yes. VM: Tell me about it. CH: As I recall, all my credits and everything from high school transferred into the records okay. Then, throughout my courses, I only recall maybe one or two where a professor had made a grading error and I had to go back and have paperwork filled out there but that was smooth. I didn't find any big issues there. When I did finally hit the point where I was ready to graduate and had my advisors and everything sign off, the graduation department said it wasn't accurate. At that time the automotive department was going through a lot of changes. It had actually just become an official department on its own, and not a program of study under the sales and service course. So basically all the requirements had changes around right in the middle of me going through them, so I had some requirements from the previous course of study and some requirements from the new one. But I was able to work through it with my advisors to get signed off on everything, and then I got it figured out with the graduation office. But I did get the letter in the mail saying, you were supposed to graduate, but there was an error. Now you have to go through paperwork. But I got it figured out, and it wasn't too bad. On that note, it was really great to work with the automotive instructors to get all that stuff figured out. When it was going through the course changes, one of the courses that I needed to take was a manual transmission course, and I was like, “Okay, I can take that. But there was a non-structural damage analysis and repair course at that same time and I had actually been looking at insurance companies, to become an insurance adjustor for employment at that point. So I thought that the damage analysis course would have made much more sense than a manual transmission course. They agreed 11 and got me into that. So they were great at working with me on getting me into the proper classes that would actually benefit me in the work force. VM: Fantastic. So we focused a lot on your major. How about the minor program? What did you get into there? CH: In the automotive program, they do not require a minor, however, there is a lot of overlapping sales and service technology courses in the four-year automotive program as well as that sales and service program. I know some automotive students actually double majored in sales and service and automotive because there are so many overlapping courses. I minored in sales and service technology and I don't remember what the emphasis was there. I did the majority of my minor courses online. VM: OK, what was your experience with the online courses? How did you like it? CH: I liked them. You go to the book store, buy the course books, and then just log on to the, at the time it was called WebCT, I don't know what they've gone on to call it since then. But uh, tog on to the program, check and see what assignments were due. And then you'd usually have one assignment due at the end of every week. And, excuse me, and then, um, a test midterm and a test at the end of the semester. So, I liked it because you just had to self-pace and remember to check at the beginning of the semester when stuff was due. I had a couple of programs, or a couple of courses where it was big projects that were due at the end and no assignments throughout. So you had to, you know, get, you had to set a time table for yourself of when you were going to get the project started, um, get something approved, and then finalize and submit it on time. I know some people that, uh, didn't, aren't good at self-pacing and didn't care for online courses. They need somebody to tell them what's going on. 12 VM: So for your personality type, that you're more prepared, you can go through and figure it out for yourself... CH: Yes. VM: That is worked for you? CH: Yes, it worked just fine for me. Yeah, just pull up that syllabus and say ok, this is due here, here, and here, and here's what we gotta do to get it done (laughs). VM: Terrific. Alright, as you know, as you and I both know very well college can be pretty expensive, and if you don't mind me asking, Mr. Heninger, uh, where did the funding come from for college? You mentioned the scholarship. CH: The scholarship. Yeah, I did get the, that original academic scholarship that got me into Weber State. Um, I did have to take out some student loans, in order to pay for the bulk of my schooling. I believe, yeah, I'm trying, I wish I could remember more detail what that original scholarship covered. But I did have that scholarship and some student loans, and then just money that I had, I was earning through that cooperative work experience, how working at the parts warehouse to pay for school as well. The books, I found that the books, uh for the generals courses, cost more than the books for my, a specific, department of study. Like a math book, I think the chemistry book was probably a hundred and twenty bucks, plus the lab guide at fifty, plus the answer key for the lab guide. So I was in, you know, you'd be in the chemistry books like three-hundred bucks. VM: Wow! CH: Whereas, like a service manual for the automatic transmission course was out of the GM, the General Motors service manual they'd photocopy it there in the print shop, and 13 have that available for much cheaper. So I liked the way they did it. But books, very expensive part of the, part of the process. VM: So books, you felt, maybe were a bit more of a financial burden than maybe, then the actual tuition? CH: Yeah, you just got to lump it all together (laughs). VM: Just consolidate your...? CH: Yeah, and I lived close enough that like, traveling or housing wasn't an issue. I know some kids in the program that drove all the way here from Tooele. VM: Really? CH: Um, drive time every day, as well as the people that came from out of state and had to pay out-of-state tuition for our program. The automotive program is one out of only four colleges that offers the bachelor's degree in automotive, and the only one west of the Mississippi, I believe. VM: Really? CH: Yeah, so we had students from Washington, Oregon, well all over the West. We had students from all over. VM: Wow. So the, uh, proximity to Weber helped relieve the financial burden? CH: Yes. VM: Awesome. So, you mentioned, you, during school, you worked for an automotive warehouse? CH: Mm hmm. 14 VM: Tell me about that a little bit. CH: It was good, 'cause I was able to both earn money for spending as well as get the corporate work experience hours. Um, I was also able to learn a lot about vehicle parts, um, where it was a parts store I obviously learned that. And then I learned a lot about the business end of things, like mark-up percentages, inventory, um customer service, that was big. One of my big deals was always customer service. And that's kind of carried over into my current job. I made, (laughs) I learned something back at the parts warehouse where I'd always have two phones at my desk so I could have one phone is each hand, and always, always on the phone. And that's translated into always; I'm always able to answer as many calls as I can. And I know in an insurance company that's kind of rare to have somebody that answers the phone and answers questions easily. So I've, I often lead the office in most phone calls taken in. VM: Wow. So, it helped you develop, say, multitasking...? CH: For sure (laughs). VM: So, uh, what auto, uh, insurance company do you work for now? CH: It's Progressive Auto Insurance. We're the third-largest insurance company in the United States, behind State Farm and All State. Um, they both offer homeowner’s insurance, where we specialize in automobiles, RV's, motor homes, motorcycles, and boats, ATV's as well. VM: OK. And, how were you introduced to Progressive? CH: I was, it was during my final semester. They had, it was during the recruiting events at Weber State. They had all the companies come into the big job fairs. And I went through 15 there, and put out some resumes and applications. And didn't, wasn't really finding anything that I was very interested in. The automotive program in particular had many employers come and recruit specifically out of the automotive program, such as: Toyota was big; Ford comes and recruits directly out of Weber State; Manheim Auto Auctions was really big while I was there. And uh, so we have all these employers coming in and recruiting directly out of the automotive department. And then American Family and Farmers insurance companies came in for a recruiting session one night. And I really liked the sound of the insurance industry, because it's still working with cars, but it’s more business ended, instead of hands-on. And then, there were also a lot of local opportunities, which is what I found really crucial. Um, my four-year advisor at the time was, Rick Dumas. And on one of the first days in the four-year program he wrote up on the board three things that you need to figure out when you were looking for a job. It was: what you want to do, where you want to do it, and how much you want to make doing it. And you had to prioritize those three things in your mind to figure out where you wanted to work. Where I wanted to do it was up there as well, as the what I wanted to do; and then number three was the how much. 16