It wasn’t that long ago that Griffin Sheridan was sitting in the classrooms at the Utica Center for Science and Industry wondering about his future.  

At the time, the 2016 UCS graduate was not sure where his future would take him, but – as he shared with a group of CSI sophomres on Monday – he soon realized that his CSI experiences would give him a powerful tool to open career doors. 

“My message really is you can chase your passion and actually make a living off of it, which can just seem so rare sometimes,” said Sheridan, who followed the multi-media pathway at CSI. “The skills you learn here at CSI are crucial and will apply to whatever you plan to do.” 

Today, Sheridan is a comics author who has a growing reputation in the industry. His successful debut, Kill Your Darlings on Image Comics, has fled to writing a Godzilla comic available on May 3 “Free Comics Day” and future assignments with DC and Marvel comics. 

It is also the reason why he was at CSI to offer encouragement and guidance to sophomores as they began creating “Comic-Con” unit. The project requires students from each CSI pathway – engineering, mechatronics and multi-media – to create their own superhero characters embedded with cutting-edge electronics and a marketing plan to sell to investors. 

“Griffin is a dynamic personality, a gifted writer, and a generous person - he was able to help and inspire our students with their character creation and their confidence in their abilities,” said CSI teacher Greg Feldkamp. “This is the fourth time he's been able to be a guest speaker at CSI. We're proud of his accomplishments and honored that he maintains his connection with CSI and our community.”

CSI sophomore Achilles Coutinho, a film enthusiast, said he was motivated by Sheridan’s message.

“The fact he was a student here does inspire me to follow up on my ideas,” he said. “It is really cool to think he was here like us.”

As he spoke of his career, Sheridan said the CSI focus on three C’s – Collaboration, Creativity and Communication – will be a difference maker no matter what career path students follow in their future.  

“Those are all the things that I learned here at CSI that have helped me every single day since I walked out of these doors,” he said. “I was semesters ahead of everybody at Grand Valley State University because of what I had learned at CSI.”