Video: South Central machining? Yeah — custom guitars.

Remember Shawn Hagan, the former South Central College student in computer-integrated machining?

He's got a diploma in that field from the college, but is actually back at South Central -- this time to earn an associate's degree. He wants to go on to study operations management in a joint program run by the college and Minnesota State University - Moorhead.

This 23-year-old is a work horse. Like many here, he works full time while pursuing his degree, taking 20 hours of classes a week.

He gets up about 6:45 a.m., goes to school from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- studying between classes, of course -- and then hits the 3 p.m.-to-midnight shift at Perfecseal in Mankato, which produces medical packaging.

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And he's a musician on the side, telling me:

"Weekends are for my band and my girlfriend."

Here's the most interesting part: He wants to design and produce custom guitars using the very stuff he learned at South Central.

He has produced the video above, which shows off both his playing skills and a guitar that he has made himself. It even shows snippets of the manufacturing process.

So far he has made two, and shrugs off any weariness his heavy schedule of two years must have given him.

He tells me:

"I've got a goal, and I want to reach it. It's tough, but it's going to be quick. It's my last year now. I don't want to push off things like getting married and buying a house until I'm in my 30s."