Spencer Miller at Stonehenge during a previous trip.
Spencer Miller is a living embodiment of the Be Boulder slogan. He is at once a leader, inclusive champion, young engineer, athlete and consummate backpacker. He is as comfortable in a Calculus II textbook as he is fixing the carburetor of an aging VW van.
“I’m so happy with my decision to go to CU Boulder. I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else,” Miller says.
A mechanical engineering junior, Miller grew up outside Washington, D.C. and moved to Colorado in high school. He exhibits a type of quiet confidence that allows him to share the successes he has had as a student without conveying any sense of self-importance.
“I was confident I could do mechanical engineering, and it opens up so many career choices. It’s one of the hardest majors on campus, but if I can do it, why not?” he says.
His attitude has earned respect from peers and academic leaders. Miller is president of the campus chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and recipient of multiple scholarships, including from the CU Engineering BOLD Center.
“Growing up around D.C., you experience every culture. I’m an ally. You don’t have to be diverse to appreciate diversity,” he says.
While his classes and responsibilities keep him busy, Miller also tries to fully experience the world around him, especially through travel. He completed a study abroad program in Wollongong, Australia last spring.
He completed numerous classes there and used his spare time to visit multiple countries, even traveling a 2,000 mile zigzag pattern across all of New Zealand, a tour he made exclusively by hitchhiking.
“I lived out of a backpack and had an amazing time. The simplicity of it is something I want other people to experience,” he says.
Knowing not everyone is up for such an adventure, he is working on bringing the experience to the public through video. This summer, Miller and his brother plan to travel across America in a 1982 Volkswagen Vanagon, a boxier successor to the classic VW Microbus. They intend to document the experience visually, although he acknowledges much of that documentation may take place stalled out on the side of the road.“The van wasn’t reliable enough for the trip when we bought it, and it’s still not. It’ll break down two or three times, but the people who stop to help will be interesting interview subjects,” he says.
He has already created multiple well-produced short films about his overseas trips and sees parallels between mechanical engineering and video.
Miller in New Zealand.
“Both ME and video require a logical and creative approach. The logic is how do I get a shot that captures a moment and order it in the right way. The creative is recognizing those moments and knowing how to cut down the footage into a good product people will enjoy,” he says.
Travel is not just a hobby for Miller; he would like to eventually find a job internationally.
“I’ve always been interested in the automotive industry, and there are options in it everywhere,” he says.
It is still a ways off, as Miller will return to campus in the fall for his senior year. He is confident his classes will be a serious challenge, but as an aspiring engineer, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“My classes get harder every year, but they also get more interesting. Earning a degree in mechanical engineering will give me the chance at careers where I can have more impact,” he says. “I can always ultimately step down on the job hierarchy if it’s too much, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”