First-Gen to Fortune 100: Alum's Journey to Tesla and New Balance

My name is Leah Bockhahn and I currently work as an EHS Engineer at New Balance in the Greater Boston area. I support employee health and safety at two different Manufacturing locations and two Distribution Centers across Massachusetts and Tennessee. Sometimes I even get to support our headquarters and specialty sports locations!

I grew up on a dairy farm in Western New York and was the first person in my family to go to college. It was an exciting opportunity but also came with a number of different pressures and worries. When I was looking for colleges, I knew I wanted a school with good job placement and RIT’s co-op program stood out to me right away. You know how sometimes things just feel right? That’s what happened to me on my first tour of RIT. I walked around and just knew it was the place for me. I am so grateful I decided on RIT as I credit much of my success to the opportunities I had and to the connections I made on campus.

I originally started at RIT in the Mechanical Engineering program and figured out very early on that it wasn’t for me. I really enjoyed the people but the math was hard, I dreaded my upcoming classes instead of feeling excited, and I missed hands-on learning. I loved RIT and knew I didn’t want to transfer so I was determined to find a passion elsewhere at the university. When I heard about the College of Engineering Technology and its focus on applied skills I met with some folks in the college, was able to attend a class as a guest, and saw the 100% career placement rate the EHS program had. I was sold! 

A career in Health and Safety can satisfy so many different interest areas. If you enjoy helping people, are willing to learn new things, and enjoy problem solving, it is a really rewarding career. From co-ops to full time roles, I’ve already worked across so many different industries: pet food research, developing brakes for semi-trucks, road construction, electric vehicle manufacturing, solar installation, and now shoe manufacturing. I love the variety of career opportunities EHS offers and that I can spend my career growing, learning, and always trying new things. 

As I mentioned, I was the first person in my family to go to college and I was learning to navigate the higher education system on my own. There was a program to support First Generation college students that reached out to me and helped to connect me with support resources that I believe truly changed the course of my life. Rachel Mathews, now the Assistant Dean of Academic Operations, and the late Bernadette Lynch, supported me through learning how to pay for school, applying for scholarships, utilizing on-campus resources, and they gave me the confidence and skills to succeed.

RIT also allowed me to explore - I expanded my perspective, joined a variety of clubs and activities, and became a very actively engaged student on campus. An adjunct professor, Kimie Romeo, recognized my background in agriculture and how important it was for me to stay tied to my roots as I grew and explored. Kimie always encouraged me to tie my academic work back to my passions, including my Senior Capstone project where I helped plan, fundraise, coordinate, and successfully led a group of volunteers to implement Wilderness First Aid courses with an ecotourism community in the cloud forests of Ecuador.

RIT became more than just an educational institution for me - RIT is where I learned about cultures, explored new languages, tried new skills, met incredibly talented people, and found passion for my work. I fell in love with co-oping and did more than the minimum requirement for graduation. I found co-ops provided a wonderful opportunity to explore new fields and different companies, helping me to hone what types of company structures and industries I enjoyed and gave an “end date” for ones that I discovered weren’t for me. 

During my early years in the program, a senior in the ESHS program came to speak in one of my classes about his co-op experience at Tesla. I was amazed and so excited by the work and opportunities he had shared that I applied to co-ops at Tesla every term after that. Much to my dismay, I never heard back from them. I ended up finding an RIT alum on LinkedIn who worked at Tesla, reached out to him, and he was able to get me an interview. That interview led to a co-op, that led to part time work while I finished college, that eventually led me back to Tesla for a full-time role where I grew to be a Regional Safety Manager for Tesla’s Energy division in my 20’s! 

RIT kickstarted my career and launched me into a whirlwind of a life that I am eternally grateful for. My passions in EHS have led me to discover a new, related area of interest in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. I am now working toward my master’s degree at Harvard and can’t wait to see where life goes from here! 

If you’re passionate about trying new things, problem-solving, hands-on learning, unique opportunities, and helping people and organizations, Environmental Health and Safety is a great field to pursue. The faculty and staff in the ESHS program, the College of Engineering Technology, and across RIT as a whole, are there to help you learn, grow, explore, and succeed. Dive in-you won’t regret it. 

Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn - I am always happy to chat.