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Former CBS Colorado Future Leaders award winner from rural town of Campo now studying mechanical engineering at Duke University

By Libby Smith

/ CBS Colorado

Life has changed a lot for a former CBS Colorado Future Leaders award winner in the past few years. In late 2022, Mylo Lovejoy was in high school and leading a project to turn an old school bus into a hydroponic greenhouse in his hometown of Campo. The town in the southeastern part of Colorado is located about 9 miles from the Colorado-Oklahoma border.

Fast forward to 2025 and Lovejoy is a sophomore at Duke University studying mechanical engineering.

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Milo Lovejoy CBS

Going from a small Colorado town to a big university "was definitely challenging," Lovejoy told CBS Colorado in a remote interview. His school district is among the smallest in the state with only around 40 students total. His high school classes were often held over Zoom.

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Mylo Lovejoy in class at Campo High School in 2022. CBS

"My graduating high school class was three students and now I'm in a class of over 1,000, so it's definitely a lot different," he said.

A few years ago he was innovating on his family's farm by engineering a clay target thrower to make skeet shooting more challenging. Now he's getting hands-on engineering experience designing and building a Happy Meal toy and working on an environmental art installation.

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Milo Lovejoy shows off an experimental toy at Duke University. Milo Lovejoy

 "Based on the wind speed, the light on the device changes in brightness, and we made an intial prototype for that and eventually the client wants to have 50 of them out in a field," Lovejoy said.

As Lovejoy experiments with different possible career paths in STEM, he said he's starting to narrow it down.

"Something in like mining engineering or construction engineering I think I would love, because half the time you're in the field and half the time you're at a desk," he said.

Lovejoy is also exploring teaching along with all of his math, physics and engineering classes.

If you know a high school student who excels in science, technology and engineering or math, you can nominate them for CBS Colorado's Future Leaders award here.

© 2025 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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