When Gurhan Andac was growing up in Ankara, Turkey, he dreamed of designing big ships or locomotives. Then, during his senior year at college, a professor showed the class a video about gas turbine jet engines, and he was converted. He decided to apply for graduate school abroad and was accepted into the University of Southern California’s engineering program. To help him plan his education, he wrote to GE to ask for advice, knowing it was a place where he might be able to pursue that career someday.