Morgan and Laura Berry

Why Auburn Engineering?

For Laura, Auburn University was a given.  She grew up coming to Auburn with her parents and family on football Saturdays.  She always wanted to attend Auburn, but what to study was another matter.  After several quarters in the College of Science and Math, she decided to pursue engineering and with all those Chemistry credits, Chemical Engineering was the obvious choice. 

Morgan started college at another university, but after a year, he decided on engineering and transferred to Auburn.  He had started out in Civil/ Environmental Engineering, but quickly changed to Chemical Engineering after some encouragement from  his grandfather, who had studied chemical engineering at West Virginia University in the 1930s.

How did you meet? If you met on campus, could you tell us your Auburn story?

We had our first Chemical Engineering class (ChE 210, Material Balances with Dr. Guin) together in the Aerospace Building in the Summer of ’98.  Although the class was pretty small, we did not actually spend much time together until the following fall at a study group with a mutual friend and other classmates that developed while taking Dr. Maples’ Engineering Thermodynamics class. Morgan and I had our first date in January of 1999, where we splurged for Wendy’s and rented a movie on VHS from Blockbuster.  

Throughout our time in engineering school, we studied with the same group of 7-10 classmates, and our study group became our family at Auburn.  We went to football games together, spent countless hours studying and working alongside each other in the computer lab, and we all keep in touch to this day. 

Some of our favorite things to do in Auburn included Friday afternoon lunch at Momma G’s between classes, free fountain drink & car wash with fill up from the College St Chevron, Sani-Freeze, Niffer’s, springtime at Kiesel or Chewacla parks, and football in Jordan-Hare.

The week before graduation Morgan proposed at Kiesel Park in Auburn and Laura said “Yes!”  After graduation, we moved to New Orleans, where Morgan worked for ExxonMobil, and Laura worked for URS Corporation.  We had a magical wedding with friends and family in May 2002.  After a few years in New Orleans and Houston, we moved back to Alabama to work for Alabama Power/ Southern Company in Birmingham.

Where are you now? Tell us about your engineering journey after graduation!

Fast forward 20+ years, we have the two coolest kids, Ava (15) and Scarlett (13).  We keep busy with their activities: martial arts, softball, volleyball, show choir, while both working full time.  Morgan is a Project Manager with Southern Power Company in their Development Group and Laura until very recently was the Vice President of Business Development for a local solar development company.     

Auburn Engineering was a major piece in the puzzle of our lives.  Engineering gave us a unique skill set for critical thinking and problem-solving, which has given us a number of opportunities in our careers.  We can honestly say we wouldn’t be where we are today without it.