Hi! My name is Joe Kopacz. It appears that you have found my webpage. Congratulations!

I gather than in coming here, you probably want to know a little more about me. Huh…well, where to start? Since I originally put this webpage up in 2014 most of the content has been about my career aspirations and professional background, and I think that’s probably still a good place to start, so…

Career aspirations and professional background

I recently started work at Dresden Generating Station with Exelon. I’ve enjoyed my work so far in the Primary Group of Plant Engineering, and I hope to remain at the station for the foreseeable future.

Prior to joining Exelon, I was at Iowa State University working on a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. I could talk a lot about my time there, but in the interest of being brief, I’ll say that I really enjoyed the three years I spent there. I met and got to know a lot of great people, learned a ton, and had some great experiences through internships, conferences, and otherwise just having fun!

Looking further backward, there’s a bunch more I could talk about. I spent some time getting a Bachelor of Arts in music from the University of Northern Iowa, and while I don’t plan for a career in music, I still really enjoy playing my euphonium. I currently play in a local brass band and small ensemble in the Quad Cities, but if you offered me money (or pizza), I’d probably be willing to play your wedding, church service, bar mitzvah, coronation, etc. (I’m serious about the pizza thing. I’ll play for food. Just not Domino’s.)

So that’s the really professional stuff, I guess. Let’s move onto something else, like possibly:

Personal Interests

Travel – Yeah, I like to go places that aren’t right where I’m living at the moment. I haven’t made it out of the country for a while, but I’ve spent some time traveling around while in school, including places like Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Boston, Chicago, and Florida (yeah, I went to Florida for conferences, work meetings, and to visit friends, all in different parts of the state. Thus I’m listing the whole state).

I did a bunch of international travel while in school at UNI. I spent a summer in Spain while working for Camp Adventure, competed in a solo brass performance competition in Jeju, Korea, and toured the northern part of Italy with the UNI wind symphony. I also spent a summer near Traverse City, MI at the Interlochen Arts Camp, which is probably one of my favorite experiences thus far in my life.

Reading – On the average weekend off of work when I’m at home, I’m likely to spend a good portion of my time indoors with a nice cup of tea (more on that below), a baked good (seriously, more on my love of food below), and a good book. I find many genre interesting…in fact at some point, I’m going to try to put together a list of books I’ve read that I really like and why somewhere on this website. We’ll see what happens there, I guess.

Food – I have a love of cooking and eating. I visit farmers’ markets just about every Saturday in the summer months. I frequent the TV and the online to find new recipes. I’ll put some favorites up here eventually.

So, in conclusion…

Okay, so I’m not exactly sure how to end what is already becoming a lengthy introduction. There’s lots that I want to share with the world, and I’ve always wanted a more personal space to share it in than places like Facebook (or Google+?). I’ll try to put stuff here periodically as I have time and feel like doing so. Feel free to browse about and contact me if you find something interesting and want to hang out or if you want to possibly hire me. I like to think that I’m a fairly nice guy.