Senior Highlight: Bobby Farenkopf

Involvement in Valpo’s mechanical engineering program, Esports team, and more have prepared Bobby Farenkopf ’20 for life outside of college.

“Being at Valpo was the first time I was really on my own, and it offered me the college experience that I had always wanted,” Bobby says.

Outside of Esports, Bobby was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, participated in almost every intramural sport, was a member of Tau Beta Pi, and worked as a resident assistant. He was inducted into the engineering honors society his senior year.

“I worked through a lot of my time management struggles within my first year at school, but it set me up to be able to do more on campus later into my college career. My junior and senior years at Valpo were my busiest overall. Needless to say, most days of the week were booked until around 10 p.m. I think that being able to do all of these things on campus as well as maintain academic success showed me that I was maturing and shouldn’t shy away from activities I was interested in just because I was worried about time management.”

While Bobby had participated in other extracurricular activities, Esports had his interest from the beginning of his freshman year.

“I was in the Esports club on campus freshman year, that was just focused on fun events,” Bobby says. “When I heard there was going to be a competitive team, I took a shot and hoped I would be good enough to play. I’ve been playing League of Legends off and on since freshman year of high school and wanted to play the game at a more competitive level.”

Bobby’s desire to play at a competitive level was answered when Valpo created its Esports program. Because of his positive experience, he advises students to give it a try and has high hopes for the program’s future! 

“I would suggest that if students have the desire to play a particular game at a competitive level to give it a try,” Bobby says. “Similar to other sports, the worst that can happen is that you don’t make it but get to understand what you need to do to improve. I would like to see the Esports program branch out into more games, and I hope to be able to watch the League of Legends and Rocket League teams win a championship and tournament next season.”

Bobby hopes to leave a legacy of being a positive teammate and person to be around, but it was the people he met along the way that left a mark on him. 

“I now talk to people that I wouldn’t have met without Esports, and I consider them very good friends, particularly Ben Sekuloski ’20 and Ryan Ogorzalek ’20, the other seniors from the team,” Bobby says. “Getting to play in the Esports lab with the team on a game day was probably my favorite memory.”

After graduation Bobby plans to pursue a career as a design engineer. 

“My time at Valpo has shown me that mechanical engineering can be involved in so many different projects that evolve,” Bobby says. “For the most part, engineering is not very stagnant, so the constantly evolving field is what makes engineering so enticing.”