Colin Brown was a curious kid.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Oley Township, things like electricity and machinery fascinated him. He loved visiting the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown and playing with Snap Circuit toys.<\/p>\n
And when one of his playthings would break, he would take apart other toys and use the pieces to fix it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just loved to take things apart to learn about them,\u201d the 18-year-old Oley High School senior said.<\/p>\n
As Brown prepares to graduate high school, his curiosity hasn\u2019t waned. In fact, it\u2019s only grown deeper.<\/p>\n
It has led him on a path to the mechatronics engineering technology program at Berks Career and Technology Program and toward an eventual career in electromechanical engineering.<\/p>\n
It has also led him to be named the Reading Eagle\u2019s Berks\u2019 Best 2026 winner in career and technical education.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most important things to have to be successful in a field like engineering is to be curious,\u201d he said. \u201cIt allows you to go beyond what you\u2019re being taught.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said he wasn\u2019t always sure his future would include pursuing engineering. Instead, he imagined he\u2019d head to the career and technology center and enter the automotive program.<\/p>\n
But at the suggestion of his parents and a guidance counselor, he did an exploratory mechatronics engineering technology program at BCTC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d try it for a couple for a couple of weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I liked it I\u2019d stay, if not I\u2019d go to automotive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working with machinists and computer drafting students, he was tasked with creating a miniature car racing game. He loved the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what really solidified my interest in the mechatronics program,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
Throughout his high school career, Brown has used what he\u2019s learned not only to succeed academically but also in real-life situations. One of his main hobbies, he said, is repairing and salvaging electronic devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve fixed CD players, tape players, other various audio devices,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m really interested in vintage audio equipment. Like I worked on a 1936 radio, I was really interested in the vacuum tube technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following high school, Brown said he plans to attend Reading Area Community College to pursue an associate\u2019s degree in electrical engineering \u2014 a task he already has a jumpstart on after taking part in RACC\u2019s dual enrollment program as a high schooler.<\/p>\n
After that, Brown plans on attending Penn State Berks and studying in the electromechanical engineering technologies program.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, Brown said, a career as an electrical engineer will follow his college career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, I\u2019d like to have a job where I have a mix of design and building, but also fixing things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colin Brown was a curious kid. Growing up in Oley Township, things like electricity and machinery fascinated him.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,85079,227,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-193200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-berks-best-2026","tag-education","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}