HAMLET — Just like electricity courses through wires and conductors to create a circuit, Jared Luckey has made a similar full-circle journey in his young career.
A 2018 graduate of the Electric Utility Substation and Relay Technology program at Richmond Community College, Luckey is trading in his field work for a classroom this fall.
Earlier this month, Luckey was hired as one of two new relay technology instructors to teach varying levels of specialized classes within the program. Joining him will be Jacob Ruperd, another alumni of the program.
“It’s been an interesting journey,” Luckey, a 2014 graduate of Richmond Senior High School, smiled. “This is not where I saw myself when I graduated in 2018, and my plan was to pitch a local office for the company I’ve been working for.
“But now I’m in this position, and I’m really excited about the opportunity to teach,” he added. “I’m a little apprehensive about the learning curve, but I’m definitely happy to get this chance.”
When his college career began, Luckey admitted he hadn’t put himself in the best situation. He spent two years completing general education classes at RichmondCC to get off academic probation before he started the Substation and Relay Technology program.
After securing financial aid, Luckey said he was grateful that RichmondCC worked with him and that the college “taught me how important the opportunity to grow and mature on my own was, even if it was the hard way.”
Luckey, like many college kids, wasn’t sure what he wanted to do as a career. But after talking to fellow students and advisers at the college, he learned how unique and beneficial the Substation and Relay Technology program would be.
“It was difficult at first, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed the program,” Luckey explained. “I love my career choice and it challenges me every day.”
Immediately following completing his two-year degree with RichmondCC in June two years ago, Luckey was hired by Premier Power Maintenance at a job fair hosted by RichmondCC. He then relocated to Decatur, Ala.
Premier, which is based in Indianapolis, has field offices all across the country and was one of a few companies familiar with RichmondCC’s program. Luckey’s post in Alabama saw him service substations all across the southeast, from Alabama to Georgia, Arkansas and Tennessee.
He said roughly “60-70 percent” of his job required some sort of travel.
“I worked as a field service technician, which mainly focuses on installs and testing maintenance,” Luckey said. “We would do repairs on equipment that was 480 volts and up, which is about anything bigger than your average house.
“Our job was to work mostly on substations, and the majority of the work I did was outage work. We went to plants and factories with their own substations and did maintenance on them.”
Luckey spent 21 months working out of the Alabama office before he was moved to the protection and controls division of Premier. That promotion allowed him to move back home to Richmond County this past March, but his work still required him to travel out-of-state frequently.
In June, Luckey saw a job posting for a substation and relay technology instructor at RichmondCC and said it was a position he was interested in.
Over the course of a three-week span, Luckey went through a series of interviews with a selection committee made up of teachers and professors and was ultimately hired by president Dale McInnis and vice president of instruction Kevin Parsons.
“The job posting was something that made me think about getting a regular 9-5 job that allowed me to still do what I love but without all the traveling,” Luckey said. “It’s a great opportunity and I’m thankful I was chosen.”
Some of the things that Luckey, Ruperd and the other instructors will teach incoming students are several areas of substation and relay technology work, the history of the program and the career field, advanced theories, troubleshooting and job specifics that will be needed.
The lure of the job also had to do with how special RichmondCC’s program is to Luckey and all of those who have come before and after him.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind program and it’s a beast of its own,” he said. “We are one of only a few colleges to have a program like this, and the only one with a substation on campus. RichmondCC offers an extreme level of detail and teaching, and I’m proud to be a part of that.”
It’s his nearly two years of experience working all across the southeast that Luckey hopes will add to his teaching and benefit his soon-to-be students.
“Between Jacob and I, we bring a lot of field experience which will allow us to focus on the practical areas of our career,” Luckey said. “If I can incorporate that into my classes, and talk about the experiences and challenges I’ve faced, I think that will really help.
“I hope to be able to get the program a lot more exposure and help more people become interested in this career. We’re not even scraping the surface of the industry, and I want students to know they can go anywhere they want with a career like this.”
As he looks to begin his new position at RichmondCC, Luckey also hopes to begin work on his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
