Brandon Mackie.
The sky is the limit for entrepreneur and Coffeyville Community College student Brandon Mackie. Five months after graduating high school, Mackie has several inventions in the works and is developing his skills to create more in the future.
As a high school senior last January, Mackie entered a contest called Jump Start Kansas offered by McPherson College. The contest encourages entrepreneurs to submit their idea for a new product or service. Mackie’s idea for a game was chosen as one of the ten finalists. He was given five minutes to pitch his idea to a panel of judges and was selected as the winner. Mackie won $5,000 in seed money and offered $20,000 in scholarship to McPherson College.
Mackie chose instead to start his second program at the CCC Technical Campus. Having completed the welding program in May of 2013 at the time he graduated high school, Mackie enrolled in the Precision Machining program with Instructor Cleo Ruark. “When it came down to it, I really wanted to learn more about machining so I turned down those scholarships and am attending CCC,” said Mackie. The machining program has helped Mackie understand some of the technical aspects of turning his ideas into reality.
Mackie’s inventions include a goat grooming stand that he designed to make it easier to store and haul to livestock shows. The stand which usually holds the goat in place for grooming prior to a livestock show is usually is about 4 foot long. Mackie has designed his grooming stand to have collapsible legs and fold into half in the middle. Mackie won grand champion at the Kansas State Fair with his grooming stand in the Micro Projects division. In addition, Mackie won the Kuhn Krause Incorporated Choice Award for Innovation which recognizes FFA students for their innovation in addressing problems or situations in agriculture by designing new products. Mackie is offering the stand through ebay.com as well as pursuing other ways of marketing them.
Mackie’s game, that won top prize in the Jump Start Kansas competition, is a Christian game based on biblical scripture meant to encourage those who play it. The game called the Highway to Heaven utilizes the 13 symbols of love given in the bible to heal and uplift individuals. Mackie is currently working with the Adventure Club in Wichita to manufacture and market the game.
Going forward Mackie is looking for new adventures. He has applied to attend engineering school with a cruise ship company. If Mackie is chosen through their selection process he will attend three years of schooling, some on land and some at sea. He plans to use his time on land to further pursue his inventions. Brandon is the son of Troy and Channion Mackie of rural Coffeyville and he has an older brother Tyler and a younger brother Caleb.