Blount County business owner Kevin Roddam chose Wallace State twice

CLEVELAND, Ala. — Kevin Roddam was already a business owner, husband and father when he chose to come back to Wallace State more than 20 years after first attending upon graduating from Oneonta High School in 1995. He came back to earn degrees in Engineering Technology in order to fulfill a longtime dream of designing homes.
When Roddam first started taking classes at Wallace State in 1995, he began with the intent of enrolling in the Nursing program. His mother was a cardiac LPN, his brother had graduated from the program and Roddam also served as a medic in the National Guard. “I just thought that was a good fit for me,” he said. But once in the program, he decided that was not what he was meant to do and left college to enter the workforce.
In 2000, Roddam began working for an HVAC test and balance company and by 2004 he was certified as an HVAC Test & Balance Technician. Two years later, he was certified as an HVAC Test & Balance Engineer and he and his wife Amy bought the company he was working for.
“In 2017, I was given the opportunity to return to college to pursue a lifelong dream of mine,” he said. “I have always had a desire to develop house plans and help people design their dream homes.”
Roddam said he met with Todd Hardman and Blake Ray in Wallace State’s Engineering Technology program. “They were very open and encouraging toward their program and me being able to accomplish my goals through it,” he said. “I enrolled back in college at Wallace State Community College in Fall semester of 2017, 20 years later, to get my degree.”
Roddam graduated in the Spring of 2018 with an associate degree in engineering technology with concentrations in architecture and mechanical-civil engineering, as well as certificates in Basic AutoCAD and Civil-Mechanical Sciences.
Shortly before graduating from Wallace State, Roddam opened a second business, Cornerstone Home Design, LLC. “I am currently drawing house plans for the public, not only here in Blount County, but surrounding counties as well,” Roddam said.
Roddam said one of the most beneficial and rewarding aspects of his time at Wallace State are the friendships he developed with fellow classmates. “We all worked together and still talk to this day about what we are all doing now since graduating,” he said. “Since graduating and already drawing for the public, feeling and knowing that this was the correct decision about my career and having the peace about it is something that cannot be expressed in words. God is so good.”
Roddam added he appreciates all that Wallace State has done for him and for Blount County, especially with the new campus center there. “WSCC offers so many areas of study and career paths that I believe anyone could find the career of their dreams and fulfill that dream by studying at WSCC,” he said.