Caleb Bowers, ’15, Returns to Campus to Discuss Careers in STEM
Written by Alysha Katterheinrich
Hillsdale College welcomed a panel of professionals from a variety of STEM-related fields on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Caleb Bowers, ’15, was one of the panel members who came to discuss STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, opportunities beyond the cozy Hillsdale campus. Upon returning to his alma mater, Bowers used his diverse background to give valuable advice not only to current Hillsdale students interested in software development, but also to students interested in any area of STEM.
Bowers came to Hillsdale with aspirations to major in math or physics, but as he developed his specific interests and began to delve into the liberal arts curriculum, he gravitated toward the computational mathematics major. Hillsdale not only directed his interests toward software engineering, but it also set him up with problem-solving skills that laid a foundation for his career. The summer before his senior year at Hillsdale, Bowers had an internship opportunity with the U.S. Navy, which would open a door for future opportunities after he entered the workforce.
After graduation, Bowers began working for a medical software company called Epic, where he learned to evaluate company culture to find the best fit in the workplace. “Culture stems from the founder, and that is something to take into consideration,” Bowers advised. “What is the lifestyle I’m going to have if I take this job? What am I going to be prioritizing?” Seven months after joining Epic, Bowers evaluated these questions, and chose to find a company culture that better suited his lifestyle.
As Bowers strove to find the right fit for him in the workforce, he returned to the Navy, first working as a government civilian in Maryland. About a year later, he transferred to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, specializing in computer network research, while also earning his master’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Reflecting on his time at the Naval Research Laboratory, Bowers advised students to avoid early specialization, as it could limit future opportunities. “Early on in your career, it’s definitely easier to move around because as you stay somewhere longer, you tend toward specialization,” he said. “When I did computer science research, part of the reason I wanted to leave was because I was so isolated in one specific field.”
All of Bowers’s previous experience in the STEM field led him to find his current job as a software engineer at Anduril, a defense products company that develops military technology using advanced engineering and computing.
Bowers’s extensive software engineering experience amongst multiple organizations has given him a well-rounded perspective of the field. Stressing the importance of developing the foundational skills that he found necessary to all areas of software engineering, Bowers said, “With computer software programming, it’s all math at the end of the day, so focus on math. That’s the hard part—learning the languages and putting it all together.”
As Bowers reflected on his time at Hillsdale, he looked to the liberal arts curriculum that prepared him not only for a career in software engineering, but for any path he chose. “[My education] led me to be able to approach different problem sets, understand them, and then work on them,” he said. “Even if I didn’t have the hard skills immediately necessary, I could figure out how to get them right.”
Alysha Katterheinrich, ’26, enjoys small town life in both her hometown, New Knoxville, OH, and in cozy Hillsdale, MI. When she’s not cheerleading for the Chargers or dancing on stage, she is found enjoying lattes with friends and discussing her favorite books and movies.
Published in March 2023