Cool Kid Jacob Lovi helps Boeing develop easier way to make satellites

ROSEMEAD, Calif. (KABC) -- Our ABC7 Cool Kid for Thursday, Dec. 29, is 18-year-old Jacob Lovi, who was honored as his school by aerospace company Boeing.

Jacob attends Bosco Tech High School and the senior had a moment he will never forget. He received a certificate of appreciation from a chief engineer from the company.

It all started weeks before he finished up his summer internship. Jacob came up with an idea he thought could help engineers make satellites more efficiently and save money. The only problem was getting someone to take him seriously.

"So I decided to talk to some of the engineers that I worked with. Most of them said, 'You can try to bring it up to upper-level management, but no one's really going to listen. It's not like it's that big of a deal,'" he said.

But the intern kept pushing until he finally got the meeting he was looking for. He said he met a senior level engineer, who jumped on the idea right away. Jacob said they were able to take the project and make it into something.

The senior's idea will now save Boeing thousands of dollars on every satellite building in the future. Those savings could top millions of dollars within the next five to 10 years.

"Just the fact that a simple idea that I brought to these people was able to come through was extremely humbling," he said.

Jacob, who is also the high school class president, YMCA camp counselor and youth minister leader at his church, plans to major in material engineering. He hopes to work for Boeing one day.