McFall Faulkner (he/him), Retired Electrical Engineer
Mr. Cohen’s sixth grade class at Blackstone Elementary School has been reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba’s memoir about building a wind turbine. To connect their classroom curriculum with real-world applications, we coordinated a Pathfinders visit from retired electrical engineer McFall Faulkner on February 5, 2025.
McFall was born in Boston and attended Boston Public Schools. He held a variety of jobs after high school, including working in the mailroom of an engineering company. In his words, “That job was just a job, but it exposed me to what engineering is.” The drafting room was particularly interesting to him, because drawing up the plans for components seemed like something he could do. With this inspiration, McFall enrolled at the Franklin Institute. Throughout this time, his supervisor noticed his interest in drafting and tried to give him related work. McFall continued to attend school at night to earn his associates degree, during which he learned more math, physics, and electrical circuit design. He moved up to a designer role, creating the plans for machines that would be checked by engineers. Eventually, he went to work at MIT Lincoln Labs as a full-fledged engineer.
After sharing his journey, McFall explained how a wind turbine works, and fielded questions from Mr. Cohen’s students about his experience and the mechanics of electricity and using wind to create energy.
McFall’s visit to the Blackstone embodied the goals of Pathfinders: illuminating potential careers while sharing experiences of mentorship and self-discovery. McFall learned about a career in engineering by seeing it firsthand; Pathfinders brings those opportunities to students right in the classroom, helping them make real-world connections to their learning and start envisioning their own post-secondary paths.
