UT student survives car wreck, graduates on time

Returning to school better therapy that taking time off.

By Ralph Haurwitz, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

AUSTIN, TEXAS—May 2, 2008

Almost 16,000 college students in Central Texas are graduating this spring, and many of them faced obstacles on their way to earning a diploma.

Some struggled academically. Some balanced full-time jobs with their studies. Others got homesick. Still others switched majors. For Greg Power, the challenge was to stay on track and graduate in four years despite a near-fatal car wreck.

Brushing aside his doctors' advice to take a semester off, Power jumped back into his studies a few weeks after suffering a head injury and a broken pelvic bone and will graduate this month with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas. He has lined up a petroleum industry job in Houston.

"I never even thought of taking the semester off," said Power, 21. "The biggest therapy of all was just coming back to school."

Power, who plans to resume playing ice hockey soon, said he has recovered fully. But it was touch and go for a while during the wee hours of Aug. 10, after a drunken driver ran a red light and broadsided Power's Toyota Camry as he was eastbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Interstate 35. Power had not been drinking.

Police officers and witnesses initially thought Power was dead. E-mails to that effect went out to some friends and staff members at UT.

But Power was out of the hospital after eight days. Doctors at the University Medical Center at Brackenridge closed up the gash above his left eye with 18 stitches. It took longer for the bleeding in his brain and the pain in his pelvis to fully subside.

Power didn't bother using crutches. "I just kind of dealt with the pain," he said.

His mother, May, who lives in Houston, spent a month and a half with him in Austin during the fall semester, driving him to class, cooking meals and otherwise doting on him. Power took a reduced course load and, because of the neurological effects of the head injury, was allotted twice as much time to take tests as his classmates.

By the start of the current semester, he was going full-bore again, working several hours a week as a student assistant in the academic affairs office of UT's Cockrell School of Engineering and taking 16 credit hours, including courses in biomedical engineering and linear algebra.

In addition, he and two other students collaborated on a capstone project involving a coal-fired power plant near La Grange. They will present recommendations to the Lower Colorado River Authority next week on devices that could trim pollution and save money.

Power will graduate with honors and a 3.82 grade point average.

"He is just an amazing person, an amazing student," said Tricia Gore, assistant dean of engineering for student affairs. "He was determined not to let the car accident slow him down."

The experience has imparted a certain maturity, as well. Power said he has learned that no matter how bad things are, they could be worse. And he has a deeper appreciation for family and friends: "I wouldn't be where I am without them."