When Cody Conger ’26 graduated this spring, he left the Moscow campus with a mechanical engineering degree and a job at The Boeing Company. But his path to that destination wasn’t always smooth. Early in his time at University of Idaho, Conger struggled to find his footing before discovering a home in the Vandal aerospace community.
Formerly a helicopter mechanic in the U.S. Marines, he came back to school to work toward an aerospace career.
“It was a bit of a culture shock, from being in the military and going back to school after living with my best friends in a dorm for five years,” Conger said. “That first couple months, I really struggled to find my own community.”
Conger sought out guidance from the Military and Veteran Services Office but still struggled to relate to some of his peers. Staff there encouraged Cody to explore new ways to bring his aerospace interests to campus.
To build a closer-knit community while exploring aerospace engineering, Conger helped start the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics club on campus, which sends students to compete in the associated AIAA competitions.
Students gain hands-on aerospace experience at a small scale, as Conger’s team competes in the AIAA DBF (Design, Build, Fly) competition, where each group participates in all stages of the aircraft design process. Students work to design an aircraft, assemble all the pieces, and finally, send it into the air on competition day.
It was a bit of a culture shock, from being in the military and going back to school after living with my best friends in a dorm for five years. That first couple months, I really struggled to find my own community.
Cody Conger
Mechanical engineering graduate
Conger recruited students with a likeminded passion for aerospace and found common ground with students in the university’s ROTC program.
“We really got the club off the ground with the support of Professor Vibhav Durgesh and Professor Matthew Swenson; they were passionate about starting the club and helped spread the word to their students,” Conger said. “Something like 60 students showed up to the first meeting so we knew there was a big demand for the club.”
As the organization grew, it provided members with opportunities to put lessons learned in the classroom into practice through collaborative design.
For the past two years, the club has continued to build technical knowledge to refine the design process and understanding of high level competition.
“We learned 100 times more this year than we did last year, about the process, how to build it and the paperwork that needs to go with it,” Conger said. “More than that, there were some great comments from the school that helped to get that plane flying.”
With the AIAA club, Conger said he developed lasting friendships and the ROTC students and engineers alike make magic happen in the campus garages. For Conger, the community comes first, but the practical skills have also been a huge plus.
“Coming to school here and having this steppingstone of AIAA was great, since it was super hands on, which is what I like to do,” Conger said. “I think it actually helped me get the job with Boeing.”
After getting resume advice from the Career Services Office on campus, Conger felt confident enough to head down to the bi-annual career fair and approach recruiters from some of the biggest engineering companies in the nation. There, he exchanged helicopter stories with a recruiter from Boeing; he and the recruiter’s father had worked on the same types of aircraft. Following more visits to networking nights and formal interviews, Boeing offered Conger a position in the company as a liaison engineer.
In summer 2026, he’s packing up his belongings and moving to a house in Everett, Washington, where he’ll start his career.
“Everything is starting to settle in nice,” Conger said. “They’re paying me well, and I’ve got a home in a nice area; I’m excited to see where I’ll be in 5 or 10 years.”