While the Novartis vaccine plant is only now officially opening, Shannon Manning is already one of its proudest boosters.
Manning is a production engineer in the automation engineering department. But it's his path to the job with the pharmaceutical giant that makes him an evangelist.
Manning, 32, a native of the Nash County town of Middlesex, developed an interest in science while attending Southern Nash High School. He took advanced placement chemistry, physics, and even became a lab assistant.
But like many college students, he also developed other interests after graduating high school in 1996 and entering North Carolina State University.
"There were some good and some bad semesters," he says. "But enough were bad that I quit school."
He wound up working long hours managing a couple of area restaurants for a major national chain. Not much science, but a eureka experience nonetheless.
"I realized the quality of life was horrible shortly after I got married," he chuckles, "so I decided the only way out was to finish school."
New Life Ahead
So in 2003, Shannon went back to school. He re-enrolled at NC State and waited tables at night.
The Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing, Training, & Education Center (BTEC) - the largest hands-on biomanufacturing training facility in the world - wasn't open then.
"But I got to go through Dr. Robert Kelly's BIT biotechnology program at N.C. State, which in a way was a small-scale version of BTEC," he said.
"It teaches things like fermentation, purification and animal cell culture with an intro class, two modules, a few other courses for a biotech minor."
Manning was becoming immersed in biomanufacting career goals, challenged by the bioprocessing and good manufacturing practice environment.
They're taking on big responsibilities — and delivering, despite being literally right out of the gate."
– Marcelo Anderson
Industry and Student Life Changer
Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center.
"It was a load," he recalls now. "Studying chemical engineering in college while married and waiting tables. There was a standard joke in our group that my wife and a few others were Chemical Engineering widows."
His wife Amy, a Raleigh native, is a Spanish teacher at East Wake Academy in Zebulon. They now have a 20-month-old son, Harrison.
Seeking hands-on industry experience, Manning landed a two-semester co-op position at Wyeth's vaccine manufacturing facility in Sanford followed by an internship, then contract employment there.
"I was really lucky to get the experience I needed working on the floor at Wyeth," he says. "But now BTEC is available to provide that. That facility and its people are really impressive. It opened the last semester of my senior year, in 2007."
Manning and fellow N.C. State student Lisa Saxon even took over leadership of the campus' chapter of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), growing it from about seven members to more than 100, now considered one of the most active chapters in the world.
The ISPE chapter soon became naturally affiliated with BTEC, so Manning became acquainted with BTEC leaders such as Chris Daubert, Ph.D., and Marcelo Anderson.
Finally, upon graduation, Manning was offered the job at Novartis.
"It's just a great company--a great group of people," he says.
Already, Novartis has hired some 30 NC State alumni, most of whom are natives of North Carolina.
"This talented group of students has established a world-wide reputation at Novartis," says Anderson, BTEC's Industry and Student Life Changer.
"They're taking on big responsibilities--and delivering, despite being literally right out of the gate. It is a testament to the caliber of talent, the faculty who guided them, the experiences they have had and Novartis' leadership and support. It is unprecedented in my experience."
And for Manning and his classmates, it sure beats waiting tables.