Did you work a job while in high school? Were you an umpire for Little League baseball games or did you work behind the register at a fast-food restaurant, or did you do something else?

There are many work-related lessons to take away from experiences like those, but most of the part-time jobs that high schoolers end up working don’t translate seamlessly to their professional careers down the line.

Tyler Ludwig isn’t like most high schoolers. The Fountain Hills High School senior is in the top 1% of 2022 graduating seniors around the country, as he was named a National Merit Finalist earlier this year. He is also already making some money in his chosen field doing something he loves, designing trains.

Ludwig will transfer 44 college credits into Arizona State University when he starts in the Barret Honors College this August. Ludwig will pursue a major in mechanical engineering, and Ludwig also plans to take prerequisite classes for a master’s in business administration with the time he saved by taking 11 Advanced Placement courses at FHHS.

Ludwig likes video games, and he watched the show “How it’s made?” a lot growing up. Some games let Ludwig combine his passions for engineering and video games, and around the time he entered high school, Ludwig found a game that he has since spent hundreds of hours playing, “RAILROADS Online!”

“Wanting to be a mechanical engineer, I decided to work on the visualization and understand the systems better, which this free modeling and animation allowed me to do,” Ludwig said.

“RAILROADS Online!” is an open-world game that lets players build and drive their own locomotives. The game has multiplayer and single player game modes, and eventually Ludwig was approached by a group because the models he designed were “better than average.”

According to Ludwig, some of his teammates are actual railroad workers, and others work for museums and are tasked with preserving railroad records. Through this team, Ludwig was connected to historians and other railroad professionals.

“Currently, we have an agreement with Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which is run by the states of Colorado and New Mexico,” Ludwig said. “I can have access to the original engineering drawings, and I can have access to some of the preserved examples.”

About a year ago, Ludwig was approached by a LLC based in Nevada, and he became a member of Trainz Forge. Trainz Forge makes additional content for players to explore – like new trains, different locations around the world, and even different eras in time – for a similar game called “Trainz Railroad Simulator.” Trainz Forge works on commission, and several of their designs can be viewed on their website, trainz-forge.com.

One of Ludwig’s personal goals is to recreate a model of the United Verde and Pacific Railway that ran through Jerome, Ariz., from 1895 to 1920. According to Ludwig, where the tracks used to be is now an open pit for a cooper mine.

A majority of Ludwig’s LLC and group partners live out of state, which wasn’t an issue during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Ludwig grew tired of his regular routine and has benefited since returning to campus.

Ludwig was the National Honor Society President his senior year and was one of NHS’s leading student tutors. Ludwig has no official association with the Student Government, but he found himself at the right place and right time to help the STUGO’s Prom committee make informational videos ahead of the dance that took place this past Saturday, April 30.

“It was definitely much more exciting and interesting,” Ludwig said. “My high school life for the past two years has been a majority of being either at a desk in a very empty classroom during distance learning or getting out of bed and walking five feet to my desk and turning on my camera, so to have this sort of environment back, it's really nice to see students coming out.”

Ludwig has attended Fountain Hills Unified School District schools since kindergarten and has spent extra time in their halls, as his mother is a special education teacher at the high school. Ludwig and his parents, David and Kim, received praise from community members since February when the National Merit award was announced, and the Ludwigs were honored at a FHUSD School Board meeting on April 13.

“It’s very meaningful,” Ludwig said. “I have deep respect for all these individuals. Growing up, I wanted to be in [Jamie Sunshine’s] class, and I always heard great things about [Cristine Barsema]. For them to praise me and say congratulations, even though the credit should be going to them since they’re the ones who helped me get here, it’s definitely meaningful.”

Interim Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney was the one to outline Ludwig’s achievements to the Board and guests in attendance. Ludwig was appreciative of Sweeney’s words and experienced a full circle moment. Ludwig was in elementary school when Sweeney was first Superintendent of FHUSD, but both Sweeney and Ludwig remembered his fifth grade science fair project, one of his first model trains.

Ludwig feels that FHUSD helped prepare him for college and what comes after. One of his favorite school activities was the robotics club, even though there hasn’t been a team since his sophomore year. The team made state Ludwig’s freshman year, and he said they always came together to find a solution, even if said solution came to them right before a tournament. Ludwig also learned to push beyond the limits he thought were placed on him in the robotics club, and he’s ready to push limits at ASU next fall.