Breaking It All Down

After graduating high school in Los Angeles, he spent two years at Ohr Somayach in Israel. Looking for a place to maintain his religious development, he discovered Lander. “I’m probably not the typical student,” he said. “I was only at Lander for about a year and a half, maybe two. But it was the only environment where I could seriously pursue both my college and career goals while still being immersed in Torah learning and personal growth.”

From 2011 to 2013, Stark juggled advanced math and physics courses with shiurim. “I’ve always wanted to be an engineer, even before I knew the word for it. I was fascinated by how things work,” he said. That curiosity sharpened into purpose at Columbia University, where he transferred in 2013 and graduated in early 2016. “Lander prepared me academically and spiritually. Columbia is not Lander, but I don’t think anyone could have been better prepared than I was.”

After Columbia, Stark launched into a career designing test systems at an engineering consulting firm. “We built specialized computers that simulate and communicate with all sorts of devices—commercial boilers, battery testers, ultrasonic flow meters,” he explained. “Each system was more complicated than the last, but it always came down to the same skill: breaking down a complex problem into manageable pieces.”

That core principle guided him through increasingly technical roles. He moved to St. Louis, where he worked for Emerson Electric as a motor test engineer. Later, at Boeing, he helped build simulators for defense aircraft like the Apache and the F-15. “It was mostly IT work, designing how simulators talk to the systems they mimic. Each plane is made up of countless electronics, and our job was to make the training environment feel exactly like the real thing.”

Stark never stop evolving. “I left Boeing about a year and a half ago to work for a company that designs test systems from scratch,” he said. Acquired by Emerson, his first employer, the company specializes in modular computers used by clients like the U.S. Air Force. Stark now works as a field application engineer—a hybrid of sales and technical expert. “I make sure our customers are getting exactly what they need. I work from home most days, interfacing with engineers all over the country. One day I’m answering emails; the next I’m on-site in a lab helping them diagnose an issue or scope out new equipment.”

The work spans multiple engineering domains—software, electrical, even RF (radio frequency) systems. “My degree is in mechanical engineering, but I barely touch it now. I’ve had to teach myself entire new fields—how different electronic systems communicate, how to simulate that communication, how to debug it.”

He recalled one particularly memorable job: rebuilding the control software for an underwater cable-laying system. “They had this boat and an underwater plow. The software had to monitor the cable tension, the plow’s angle, and all these variables to prevent snapping. I had to completely rewrite it while making sure the existing hardware kept functioning.”

That kind of challenge has become his new normal. “The company I work for now even built its own programming language. It’s all graphical — functions, pictures, drawing lines between modules. I’ve received certification in that, but I also have to interface with customers who use Python or C. I know enough to understand what’s going on, even if I’m not writing every line.”

His work is varied, dynamic, and rooted in an ethos of continuous learning. “My engineers ask me all the time: how do you know how to do this? The truth is, you don’t always know. You lean on the expertise around you, and you chip away at the problem until it makes sense.”

Looking back, Stark sees his time at Lander as a pivotal moment. “That was the best transition I could have asked for—from full-time learning to a professional life grounded in meaning. I wish I could have spent more time there. But what I got from it continues to shape how I work and how I live.”