Casey Yunger, mentor at MINDDRIVE, answers The Pitch‘s questionnaire
Name: Casey Yunger
Occupation: Chief engineer at GENESYS Systems Integrator, mentor at MINDDRIVE
Hometown: Republic, Missouri
Current neighborhood: Shawnee
What I do (in 140 characters): I am a husband, father, son, brother, mentor.
What’s your addiction? I get addicted to anything that I set out to do. In past years, it was running. (One year, I ran three marathons, one 40-mile trail run, one 50-mile trail run, and a couple of half—marathons.) Last year, it was bowhunting. Now I found a passion for mentoring high school students at MINDDRIVE.
What’s your game? One of my life goals is to be more patient. Every day, I get tested on this. Driving to work, schedules, appointments or e-mail. I decided to take up bowhunting. Anyone who has ever tried this knows that you have to be extremely patient to be successful. Don’t worry, the animals are winning so far.
What’s your drink? Boulevard pale ale
Where’s dinner? Italian Delight by Avelluto, in Mission. Great place for Sunday brunch.
Finish this sentence: “Kansas City got it right when …” They kept the small-town feel. Kansas City is an overall great place. There is continuous improvement seen throughout the city — arts, sports, schools, airport, shopping and entertainment. It is easy to get anywhere around the city in 30 minutes or less. I fly frequently, and the MCI airport is one of the easiest to fly out of.
“Kansas City screwed up when …” Hindsight is always 20/20. KC should continue to focus on bringing innovation to the city. Give incentives to business, keep youth involved, and the city will flourish.
“Kansas City needs …” Improved public transportation and more electric-car charging stations. I recently spoke with a representative from San Francisco who is in charge of clean transportation. They have hybrid buses, electric-food-truck vendors, and special incentives for owners of electric cars. The city of Santa Cruz has a program to install LED streetlights. KC also could use “Springfield style” cashew chicken. If you build it, they will come.
“In five years, I’ll be …” Watching my daughters go off to college. I will support them in whatever decisions they make.
“I can’t stop listening to …” Summer 2k14. This is a playlist on my iPhone that my seventh-grade daughter made for me — pop, country, hip-hop, rock. I still have my ’80s playlist to fall back on.
“I just read …” Spirit (Southwest Airlines magazine). Before that, Unbroken, about a World War II prisoner of war who was also an Olympic runner.
The best advice I ever got: Your kids will go through phases. Enjoy the good phases. When there is a bad phase, know that it will be over soon and another good phase is coming. My wife’s grandma always said to do all things in moderation.
Worst advice: Don’t drink too much at the company outing. That advice was a day late and earned me a “Frank the Tank” T-shirt at the next Christmas gift exchange.
My sidekick: My wife, of course! You may have seen her column in KC Parent magazine.
My dating triumph/tragedy: Went on a date on New Year’s Eve on a blue moon and ended up marrying her!
My brush with fame: Once dated a girl who then dated Brad Pitt. Tech N9ne sat at the table beside me at Jack Stack on the Plaza.
My recent triumph: Being a mentor for MINDDRIVE. I now understand why teachers choose their occupation. Helping Kansas City high school kids build electric cars at MINDDRIVE has been a life-changing experience for me. Two of this year’s students are headed to engineering school at Missouri S&T in Rolla!
See minddrive.org for more information.
