During high school, Asher Kone spent his summers working on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska.
For Kone, who grew up primarily in Honolulu, along with shorter stints in Alaska, Washington and Greece, those months on the water helped clarify something about himself.
“I love surfing and being on the water,” Kone said. “And I realized that’s really what I want to do with my life.”
When it was time to apply to college, naval architecture felt like a natural fit. That instinct directed him to U-M’s Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, or NAME, in the College of Engineering, one of the field’s top programs.
Coming to Ann Arbor from Hawaii was not a simple decision, though. As an out-of-state student, cost was a major concern, he said, and attending U-M only became possible because of financial aid and scholarships.
The move also meant adjusting to a dramatically different landscape and climate.
“I’ll be honest,” he said, with a laugh. “It wasn’t easy.”
Still, Kone said it’s been worth it.
“U-M has been a great opportunity to expand my horizons, go somewhere new, be in a different flow of life, and see new perspectives,” he said.
Kone will graduate with a resumé shaped by research and internships that have taken him from Pearl Harbor to the North Sea.
He served for two semesters on the Quarterdeck Society board, where he was program chair. In that role, he organized company visits and presentations to help fellow students connect with employers and learn about internship and job opportunities.
“It’s been very fulfilling,” he said, describing the experience of watching other students meet recruiters and land opportunities through those events.
He was a founding member and sub-team lead for Wolverine Offshore Wind, which competes in the Collegiate Wind Competition. And he worked as a research assistant in the Marine Structures Design Lab and recently completed a senior design project that he described as the highlight of his undergraduate experience: a semester-long effort in which teams design a ship from the ground up and present it to industry experts.
Kone’s internships have been just as wide-ranging. One summer, he worked for a defense contractor in Alabama. Another took him home to Hawaii, where he interned with Pacific Shipyards International at Pearl Harbor and got to crawl through Navy ships as they underwent maintenance and repair.
Last summer, he worked in marine salvage. That role took him first to Louisiana and then to England, where he spent about a month 100 miles off the coast working on a salvage job involving offshore wind turbines.
“It was an interesting experience,” he said, “and highly stressful!”
Outside of class, Kone enjoys cooking and often hosts friends for dinner. The meals, he said, reflect the many places he has lived, including Hawaii, Greece and the Pacific Northwest.
After graduation, Kone plans to stay at U-M for a paid two-year graduate program in naval architecture, funded by maritime industry partners.
Reflecting on his four years at U-M, Kone said one of the things he values most about the NAME department is how close-knit it is.
“Despite being part of a large university, naval architecture feels more like a small, tight-knit community,” he said. “I could walk into a professor’s office, and they’d be happy to help me.”
