Busy Heating & Air Student is VGCC’s Applied Technologies Student of Semester

Lowell Perrault doesn’t get much sleep, but he thinks his day and night efforts now will pay off in achieving his goals for the future.

Perrault, an Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration student at Vance-Granville Community College, has been honored as the college’s Applied Technologies Student of the Semester for Fall Semester 2005.

A Winston-Salem native, Perrault entered the U.S. Navy after completion of high school and, since discharge from the Navy, has worked at the U.S. Postal Service processing center in Raleigh for seven years. He works the night shift six days a week and attends VGCC during the day.

“When I leave school and get home, I go to sleep when my head hits the pillow,” Perrault said. But he only averages about five hours sleep a day before it is time to get up and start the cycle over again.

Perrault said he was influenced by a younger brother who works for a heating and air conditioning contractor in Winston-Salem and seems to enjoy it a great deal. His future plans, after he completes school at Vance-Granville next August, are to open a heating and air business with his brother.

Perrault lives in Youngsville with his wife, Helen, and their son, Brandon, 6.

Wesley Smith, program head and instructor for the Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration program, said Perrault is a good student who is always in class, ready to learn. “He is focused on his goal of going into business with his brother, and he puts in the effort necessary to reach that goal,” Smith said.