Legos help student build resume brick-by-brick

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WARREN — Most children outgrow their Legos, but Our Lady of Fatima High School senior, Jordan Schwartz looks at his passion for the colorful connecting blocks as a possible career path.

For the past 13 years, Schwartz has put that creativity into action building close to 200 Lego sets.

“I have been building my whole life,” he said. “My oldest brother Ben got a Lego set as gift. It was the first set in the house. Eventually, Ben stopped building, and then it was my twin brother Alex and I. Then Alex stopped building and then I was the last man standing.”

His very own Lego studio, located in the furnished basement at his parents’ home, is his creative sanctuary. Schwartz said that the handiwork he is most proud of is a 60’s retro-futuristic set complete with flying car, much like something one would see on the Jetsons.

“I also made a little Woolly Mammoth and that was pretty cool,” he said. “Those are my favorites. I generally build very small things. I like small things because they require a lot of detail and they don’t take too long to build, but every now and again I will build something really, really big that takes a long time.”

He recently published his first article for BrickJournal, a magazine for Lego enthusiasts, about one of his Lego creations, a stagecoach from the Wild West. He also has his own Website, Brickstud.com, has won several contests and was recently interviewed on LAML (Lego And More Lego) Radio.

“The coolest thing about the magazine is that it is sold in specialty book stores and some Barnes and Nobles, but all the Lego stores carry them,” he said. “It’s pretty cool that you can go to any Lego store and find one. Lego stores are always so popular and they are always full of people and crowded, doing good business in the economy. They usually sell out of the magazine by the end of the month.”

In June of 2009, Schwartz traveled to Brick World, an annual Lego convention held in Chicago. He had been asked by a friend to build a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek for a live charity auction for Toys for Tots. Joe Meno, editor of BrickJournal magazine, won with the highest bid.

“He didn’t know that I was just a little 17 year-old kid,” Schwartz said. “The owner of Lego, whose name is Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, was sitting with Joe and apparently he kept nudging him, saying ‘Joe bid higher, bid higher.’ It was kind of funny because the owner has seen my work. Joe asked me how well I could write, and then asked me how I would like to have an article in each issue, writing about whatever creations I wanted to. I said I thought it would be great.”

His hero is none other than famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who has left behind a legacy of creative design concepts inspiring ambitious architects, designers and artists. If he could visit any Frank Lloyd Wright house, he said that it would Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pa. Schwartz said that he received a Fallingwater Lego set for Christmas.

“I love Frank Lloyd Wright,” said Schwartz. “I have visited Taliesin West in Arizona and I took a tour. It was really nice and definitely very interesting.”

Lego is a very hard thing to explain because people generally think of it as little kids building Lego. I think they appreciate it. For my English class a lot of times Lego is the subject of my papers.”

Schwartz explained that his family appreciates his dedication to Lego and has been very supportive.

“They know that money is not being wasted with the magazine and all of my endeavors,” he explained. “Lego is not the cheapest product. It can get pretty expensive. They always thought, OK, when are you going to stop building with Legos. I guess they assumed it was kind of childish. Then I attended my first convention in Virginia in August of last year. That’s when I started meeting people who I had known from online Lego communities. One mom came up to my mom, and said what an honor it was to meet her. It shows my work is paying off. I am not just in the basement just building for nothing.”

“When I showed them the magazine, they made copies and gave them to teachers. They are very happy with me and very supportive,” said Schwartz

Principal Sister Mary Margaret Souza expressed that the community at Fatima High School is very proud of him.

Hoping to study either architecture or industrial design in college next year, Schwartz said that his greatest career aspiration is to work for Lego, designing the products that are seen on store shelves.

“I want to work for Lego as a set designer,” he said. “It’s a tough job to get, there are only 40 of them, but I am confident in my abilities. All the people I meet tell me, stick with it, just keep doing it, don’t stop, and just keep building.”