{"id":7820,"date":"2025-05-15T11:05:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/college-engineering\/?p=7820"},"modified":"2025-05-15T11:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:05:19","slug":"celebrating-cassie-petit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/news\/celebrating-cassie-petit\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Cassie Petit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Once a Lumberjack, always a Lumberjack<\/h3>

After nearly four years of dedicated service, Cassie Petit is bidding farewell to the Sanghi College of Engineering\u2014but not to NAU. As she steps into a new role in NAU Advancement | Foundation as associate vice president of operations and engagement, we caught up with Cassie to reflect on her time with the college, the legacy she leaves behind, and what excites her most about the journey ahead.<\/p>\n\n \n\n<\/section>\n\n\n

Q: Describe your career with SCE and what drew you to the college.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been with the college since July 2021. I started as the Assistant Director of Operations. I was looking for a new challenge and had never worked in an academic unit before. During my interview, I was really struck by how genuine, hardworking, and collaborative the Dean\u2019s Office team was\u2014it made me want to be a part of that environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What are you most proud of?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am really proud of the relationships I have built with our alumni, donors, industry partners, staff, faculty, and students.  I feel very lucky that I got to play a part in cultivating, stewarding, and securing philanthropic gifts for our college, including the transformational gift from the Sanghis.  I am also really proud of the internal culture that we have built in the college, and that largely is because of the intentional effort that Sandy and Leslie have put into our retreats, meetings, and always ensuring we celebrate each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What is a funny, weird, or memorable story you’d like to share?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Is the massive flood a day and a half before the Sanghi naming celebration funny yet? Or is that too soon? ? From my ADO role- I got to manage the promotion and tenure process, and that felt like such a privilege to be a VERY small part of that huge achievement in our faculty\u2019s career. My role in Development has so many funny, weird and interesting moments. I had the opportunity to get a tour of the world\u2019s fastest computer during one visit. One of our donors invited me and my boys (4 & 6 at the time) to a neighborhood party at their house. We were there 20 minutes before one of them got sick in their front yard after using a bounce toy too much. Last summer, an alumnus gave us a tour of the Boeing plant in Mesa that makes the Apache helicopter. After we learned about all the high tech gadgets and technology in the aircraft, I got to sit in the cockpit of one\u2014and was shocked to learn that it starts with a regular old key!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two big ones: the details matter, and nothing is achieved without relationships and teamwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What will you miss most about the college?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Everything. Working alongside our dedicated staff, brilliant engineering faculty, and inspiring students has been an adventure. I\u2019ve learned so much: what a CNC machine does, what microelectronics means, and why the I-17 is so terrible in northern Arizona with all the weather changes impacting how the concrete responds. Our faculty, staff, and students are doing work that is changing the world and to be a small part of that for the last four years has created so much meaning in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What excites you about your next role?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m excited to bring together my experiences, try new ideas, and continue building connections with our Lumberjack community. The momentum in Advancement is incredible right now, and I can\u2019t wait to be a part of what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Any final thoughts for the team at SCE?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thank you so much for everything. I’ve enjoyed my time with the college, and I look forward to seeing you continue to rise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassie, thank you for all you’ve done for the Sanghi College of Engineering. We\u2019re so proud of you and can\u2019t wait to see the amazing things you\u2019ll accomplish in your next chapter. Once a Lumberjack, always a Lumberjack!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: Describe your career with SCE and what drew you to the college. I\u2019ve been with the college since July 2021. I started as the Assistant Director of Operations. I was looking for a new challenge and had never worked in an academic unit before. During my interview, I was really struck by how genuine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":905,"featured_media":7782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7820"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7844,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7820\/revisions\/7844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/college-engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}