Raegan Fordemwalt engineers motion — and emotion.
As a sophomore mechanical engineering major at Cal Poly, she’s also a leader in CAPED, the university’s amusement park engineering club. This April, she helped guide the team to a third-place finish at the Ride Engineering Competition, hosted at The Ohio State University.
Their entry, “Jukebox Joyride,” was a disco-themed flat ride (a ground-based attraction that spins, lifts or tilts riders) featuring a rotating platform, vibrant vehicles and a high-energy soundtrack she personally curated. It was the only ride at the competition with music, and its energy turned heads. Judges praised the immersive design, and the team’s entry was named Fan Favorite.
While Fordemwalt might be known on campus for her engineering work, she’s recognized by millions online for something else: poetry.
She began posting spoken word videos to TikTok in 2022. One — a piece titled “i just want you” — went viral, amassing more than 15 million views. By 19, she had published her debut illustrated poetry book, “Lover Girl,” which reached No. 1 on Amazon’s poetry charts. A follow-up, “Prince of Hearts,” was released earlier this year.
“I don’t think anyone should have to choose between two things that make them happy,” she said. “You can be creative and you can be technical; I think that’s the fun of it.”
Back with CAPED, Fordemwalt found a way to channel both sides of her identity. A self-proclaimed roller coaster fanatic from Boise, Idaho, she joined the club her first year at Cal Poly after spotting a student-built coaster at the club showcase. She was captivated by the idea that engineering could bring stories to life — even before she had visited many major theme parks.
“It’s a club for people who share the same passion,” she said. “It brings together students from different majors, and everyone just really wants to have fun with it.”
Fordemwalt took on a key leadership role in the months leading up to the competition, heading CAPED’s controls subteam. Alongside six other students, she handled programming and testing for the ride’s electronic systems, including the custom control panel and audio integration.
“Our ride involved a lot more electronics than people probably realized,” she said. “Flat rides can actually require more coding and controls than coasters, so it was a really good challenge.”
The ride featured randomized disco tracks, safety announcements in English and Spanish, and synchronized movement between audio and ride vehicles. While the mechanical team tackled structural elements like the rotating shaft and lift mechanisms, Fordemwalt’s group focused on making the ride feel alive.
She also painted much of the ride by hand and curated the music herself. “I love ABBA, so there’s definitely a lot of that in there,” she said, laughing, “It’s such fun music — it fit the ride perfectly.”
Seven members of the REC team traveled to Ohio in April for the competition, where their vibrant entry stood out in a field of 27 collegiate teams. Compared to CAPED’s previous win, which came in a smaller pool of just four teams, this finish marked a major step forward.
“We cranked up the music, and you could hear it across the entire room,” Fordemwalt said. “Everyone was dancing by the end. It felt like we brought something different.”
Fordemwalt’s poetry isn’t just a creative outlet; it’s how she makes sense of the emotions and ideas that don’t fit neatly into equations. Her poems explore heartbreak, identity and self-discovery, accompanied by her own illustrations.
“I used to draw in middle school, but I always felt like it had to be perfect,” she said. “When I started writing poetry, I stopped putting that pressure on myself. Eventually I came back to drawing to illustrate my poems.”
Inspiration often follows a shift — from problem sets to poems, from numbers to language.
“Every time I finish an assignment for dynamics, I want to write a poem,” she said. “It’s like solving a puzzle in two different ways.”
She’s already applying to lead CAPED’s REC team next year and hopes to keep building on the club’s momentum. Her dream job? Designing animatronics — small-scale robots with personality, the kind that bring rides and characters to life.
“With so many new parks being developed, there’s a real demand for people who understand both the engineering and the experience,” she said. “CAPED is where I’m learning to combine the two.”
Whether she’s refining a control system or drafting a new poem, Fordemwalt brings the same sense of purpose to each. She leads with creativity and technical skill and shows what’s possible when you bring them together.
By Emily Slater
