When the audience at commencement hears Carver Blassingame’s name on December 18, a graduate will step forward and proudly receive the diploma he’s worked years to achieve. A few minutes later, the same name will be called again, and although the audience may think there’s some mistake, a second handshake will take place, marking another degree conferred. Father and son, Carver and his namesake, Carver Blassingame, III, will don navy robes, walk across the stage to the cheers of family, and graduate from Greenville Technical College (GTC) together.
For Carver, this achievement is a long time coming. In high school, his priorities were football, wrestling, track, and having a good time, all of which he excelled at. The athlete and class clown graduated in 1998 and walked straight into a job at the restaurant supply company where his Dad worked, throwing orders on a pallet jack and taking home an impressive salary for a recent high school graduate -- $55,000 a year.
Carver remained in that job for 12 years, until demand slowed and the company shut its doors. After that, he found a part-time position with Grainger, an industrial supply company, completing the familiar tasks of sorting products and loading trucks. Grainger, however, relies on a superhighway of intelligent conveyors. When those conveyors in his area of responsibility broke down, Carver discovered that he had a knack for troubleshooting and repair, something that the maintenance staff noticed and appreciated. They suggested that he take his natural talent for maintenance back to school and enroll at Greenville Tech for a degree in mechatronics.
Carver wasn’t so sure about mechatronics. The maintenance staff at Grainger was fairly small, and he wasn’t sure there would be jobs waiting if he graduated in that field, so he selected Computer Numerical Control instead.
“At orientation, the speakers mentioned a boom coming in mechatronics,” he said. “So I changed my major right then and there.” The move paid off. Before he even graduated, Carver was working in maintenance with his company, a position he retained for the next decade.
When GTC became the first two-year college in South Carolina to offer a bachelor’s degree in advanced manufacturing technology in 2019, Carver signed up. The degree would build upon the associate degree in mechatronics and help him advance into senior technical and managerial roles.
By then, Carver had moved to Bausch + Lomb’s Consumer Health Care plant in Greenville, where contact lens solutions and other medical products are made. As he neared completion of the bachelor’s degree, he was promoted to maintenance lead.
Working full-time and going to school over the past 14 years while earning first an associate degree and later a bachelor’s degree hasn’t always been easy. “It’s rough sometimes,” Carver said. “I can remember sleeping in the parking at Greenville Tech and going to work tired.”
And that pattern of school and work may not change after graduation. Carver is considering earning a master’s degree next, something he never thought would be part of his path.
The effort he has put into education has changed more than his own life – it’s changed his family’s future. When Carver was growing up, his parents didn’t see college as a choice he had to make. Carver parented differently. By the time his own son reached junior year in high school, Carver suggested that he plug a curious mind and an interest in how things work into the same Mechatronics curriculum that had launched Carver’s own college career. That little push worked, and Carver III graduates alongside his Dad this month with an associate degree in Mechatronics.
And though the audience at Commencement may think the announcer has mistakenly called out Carver Blassingame twice, there’s one more Blassingame to celebrate. Carver’s sister Carletta will receive a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) diploma alongside her brother and nephew, giving her hands-on experience in using CNC and computer-aided drawing (CAD) to shape metals.
The Blassingame family is well prepared for a future aligned with South Carolina’s path forward. Advanced manufacturing is a major driver of the state’s economy, contributing significantly to the GDP and supporting nearly a third of all jobs. Major employers in the area include Bausch + Lomb, where Carver has worked since 2015, BMW, where Carver III is employed in maintenance, and GE, where Carletta is a CNC machinist.
Commencement is a crossroads of completion and new beginnings, especially for the Blassingame family. Carver III is following his Dad’s path into the bachelor’s degree program. Carletta’s son has just enrolled in Mechatronics and thanks to his cousin, landed a co-op position at BMW. And Carver and his son have launched a successful side business, renovating and flipping houses, relying on the skills they’ve learned in mechatronics to complete the wiring and plumbing tasks these renovations require. Graduation for the Blassingames, a three-time cause for great celebration this year, isn’t likely to stop anytime soon. Education and the Blassingame family now go together, bringing opportunities and success their way.