Jesse Schriner – 2024 Alumni Fellow

By Grant Guggisberg

Looking for proof that hard work and a K-State engineering degree can take you
anywhere? Just ask Jesse Schriner.

The 2024 Alumni Fellow for the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering traded the small farm
in central Kansas where he grew up for the sprawling campus of one of the world’s largest
corporations in Microsoft, where he has spent the last 17 years working as an executive in the
Seattle metro area.

In between those two stops, Schriner spent two years at K-State earning a bachelor’s in electrical engineering after starting his academic career closer to home at Fort Hays
State University. He said the adjustment to K-State and life in Manhattan, Kansas, was made easier because of the people.

“There were 72 people total in my high school,” he said. “We played 8-man football. Class sizes were bigger than my entire graduating class, but it still felt like home. It still had that strong work ethic, that rural upbringing, and that willingness to put in the extra work and learn new things and help other people.”

Schriner grew up on his family’s farm in Albert, Kansas, a small community in rural Barton County. He knew early on he wanted to be an engineer rather than inherit the farm and continue
that work.

“I wasn’t quite sure what discipline of engineering I wanted to get into, but I always knew I wanted to be an engineer,” he said. “And Kansas State’s the best engineering college in the state of Kansas.”

Schriner’s path at K-State ultimately led him to the electrical and computer engineering department, where he graduated with his bachelor’s in 1992. He said what drew him to the electrical engineering discipline was the challenge that came with it.

“There are no electrical engineers in my family, I didn’t know any electrical engineers, and I didn’t know what they did,” he said. “But it scared me. And what I’ve learned is by doing things that scare you, you dig in more, you learn more deeply because you’re trying to compete. And I’m a naturally competitive person. But electrical engineering challenged me in ways that I wasn’t used to.”

 

"What I’ve learned is by doing things that scare you, you dig in more, you learn more deeply because you’re trying to compete."

-Jesse Schriner

 

Upon graduating from K-State, Schriner left Manhattan and took his first job with Texas Instruments. After five years there, he spent nine years at General Electric before landing at Microsoft, which was initially a challenge.

“My first role at Microsoft was not a great role for me,” he said. “I didn’t do well. It was the time in my career I learned that I’m not good at everything associated with engineering, and there are some things I’m not going to be very good at. I had a tough time, but I learned a lot.”

Ultimately, Schriner said he has chosen to stay at Microsoft because it takes on challenges other corporations back down from.

“I fell in love with Microsoft,” he said. “The philanthropic efforts associated with Microsoft are unreal – the way they give back to the community. It’s really a company that strives to take on challenges everybody else says are impossible. The Surface devices, AI, HoloLens, Kinnect – I’ve been involved in a tremendous number of projects that other companies or other engineers thought, ‘Well, that’s impossible. It can’t be done.’ And then Microsoft seems to strive in that sweet spot.”

Schriner, who has stayed involved with the college over the years through service on the ECE department advisory council, said it is an honor to be named Alumni Fellow.

“I love to represent the university,” he said. “It’s said a lot, but this is a special place. It’s a different approach to an education. It’s holistic, it’s collaborative and it’s hard working.”