Plainview High School Senior to Study Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

By Mark Francis,staff writer
Reprinted with permission from Daily Ardmoreite

After two trips to New York, a Plainview High School senior has been accepted into a top-ranked undergraduate engineering school to seek a dream of his -- a career in yacht designing.

Tom Tindale, 18, went to the Webb Institute of Technology Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in Glen Cove, N.Y., to interview with Adm. Robert Olsen, Webb Institute president, and learned recently he had been accepted.

Tindale, who spends the majority of his time at the Southern Oklahoma Technology Center as a student in the Oklahoma School of Science and Math in the Computer-Aided Drafting and Design Program, said he was nervous when his mother told him to call the institute.

"Mom called right after I'd taken a calculus test," Tindale said. "I was shaking and he asked me if I would like to be a member of the class of 2010."

The Webb Institute is a unique, top-ranked undergraduate institution offering the only full-tuition scholarship private undergraduate program of its kind in the country.

The institute only accepts 26 students with only one common factor, to study naval architecture and marine engineering.

Tindale said he was looking forward to studying with people having the same interests, but while at the institute and observing several classes, including calculus and physics, he was surprised he knew what they were studying.

"The Oklahoma Public Education System, including Plainview, SOTC and OSSM, has prepared me well to be successful and competitive with students nationally," Tindale said. "It is something that I am proud of."

Tindale said he will live basically in a mansion with the other students while New York City serves as the backdrop.

Although in New York he will be in his element, Tindale said he takes pride in where he has grown up and hopes students with similar interests will choose SOTC and the OSSM program because he has gained a college-level education while here.

Now his dream to design yachts is in its wake.

"I've always been around boats and yachts," Tindale said. "And I've always had an interest in designing things."

Tindale said at age 15, he learned of the Webb Institute and it served as his motivation to succeed in high school and attend the facility.

Lesley Tutor, CADD instructor at SOTC, said she was impressed with Tindale's success.

"I can't be more proud. He's extremely professional and his designing capabilities is beyond his age," Tutor said. "It's great to see him succeed."

Tindale and Tutor shared the same sentiment -- "The sky's the limit."