Scott Schoonhoven knows exactly where his story begins. Right here. He graduated from Forreston High School in 1988, and when the time came to decide where he and his wife would raise their family, the answer felt obvious.

“I loved this Forreston school district growing up,” Scott says. “So my wife and I decided—let’s move to the area.”

His wife grew up in nearby Shannon, so it wasn’t a hard sell. They settled on ten acres in German Valley, where the kids could run around, ride four-wheelers and snowmobiles, and just be outside. Scott grew up in town—not on a farm—but in a place like Forreston, agriculture was always close. Friends who lived on farms pulled him into baling hay and helping with chores, just to hang out. He remembers the freedom of town life, too—leaving in the morning on a bike, running around with buddies all day. The country traded some of that social ease for open space, but he thinks his kids would say the trade was worth it.

But the thing that fascinated Scott most wasn’t farming. It was mechanical problems. “I loved working on cars with my hands,” he says. “I was never good at English, but I like to think about problems and to come up with better ways to do things.”

Math came naturally, and one class helped shape his direction: physics, taught by Bob Hines. “The way he taught was very hands-on,” Scott recalls. “When we did experiments  we would go outside and do things. It was more than just reading out of a book. He made it interesting for us.”

That experience planted a seed. Scott enrolled at Highland Community College, earned an associate’s degree, and transferred to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb for mechanical engineering. His first job out of college was in Rockford. Then he moved to Honeywell in Freeport. Then home to Forreston, where he works today at Mid America Plastic—each stop bringing him closer to where he started.

When Forreston launched its engineering pathway, teacher Jonathan Stauffer reached out. Would Scott be willing to mentor students and judge their capstone projects? “Sure,” he said. “Whatever I can do to lend a hand.”

He now alternates between mentoring and judging. As a mentor, he helps students early in their capstone process—thinking through problems, keeping projects on track. As a judge, he evaluates final presentations alongside other community engineers, asking tough questions and scoring students across the criteria Mr. Stauffer provides.

“I think it’s a great experience for the kids to stand up in front of the judges,” Scott says. The preliminary round lets students get comfortable before the final presentation, where parents, peers, and the full panel are watching. It builds more than technical knowledge. It builds confidence.

Even for students who decide engineering isn’t their path, the exposure matters. “At least they get the 30,000-foot kind of thing out of it,” he says. “Maybe they decide it’s not for me. Well, at least they know.”

“I think it is a really big deal,” Scott says. “I told Superintendent Smith —kudos for you guys to do this and go through the effort. I know it’s not easy.” When he was a student, programs like this didn’t exist.

Scott has seen the impact through his own family. All three of his children came through the Forreston engineering pathway and pursued technical careers. His oldest graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville in construction management and now works in Peoria. His daughter studies civil engineering at the University of Illinois—a program ranked in the nation’s top five. His youngest chose Iowa State for mechanical engineering because he wanted something smaller. “He didn’t want to be just a number somewhere,” Scott says.

“I wasn’t a straight-A student,” he says. “But when you decide to do engineering, you've got to really want it to go through what you've got to go through in college to get it.” The math is heavy, and the challenging coursework is designed to shake people loose. “Either sink or swim,” he says.

His influence traces back further—to his father. Scott lost his dad at 24, before he’d finished his degree at Northern. “He didn’t get to see me graduate,” Scott says, “which I regret.” But his father was mechanically minded and loved antique cars, and that shaped everything that came after.

“Your dad’s a Bear fan, you’re a Bear fan,” Scott says. “You’re exposed to it, and that kind of carries on.”

Today, Scott continues that chain. Through mentoring students, judging projects, and sharing his experience, he’s helping the next generation of problem solvers see what’s possible—from a small rural school that decided to make it happen.