Michael Jones might tell you that a shark ate his hand or that it got caught in a wood chipper, but what he won’t do is let it define him.
Jones, a Clemson University mechanical engineering major, was born without a left hand and has severe spastic cerebral palsy, the result of complications shortly after birth.
He moves through campus in an electric wheelchair and has limited control over his fine motor skills. To communicate, Jones relies on close friends and family to translate his fragmented speech, or he uses his elbow to type on an iPad that relays his message in a computer voice.
Some in that situation might see an engineering degree, let alone a career, wife and children, as impossible. But that’s not how Jones rolls– he’s going after it all.
This Tiger, who is launching into his senior year, wants to inspire others to roar like he does.
“Even though I have all this,” he said while tracing an arc in the air that encompassed his wheelchair, “I’m still happy, I’m still joyful. I still believe I can do anything with God.”
‘Blunt, sarcastic and irreverent’
Take away his physical challenges, and Jones is like many other undergraduates. Two faculty members said that while work takes longer for him than it does for other students he grasps the material as well if not better than his classmates.
Jones said he likes video games, counts himself as a “Star Wars” nerd and describes himself as “blunt, sarcastic and irreverent.” He said he looks at himself as “just a guy trying to follow Jesus.”
Peter Hyatt, director of Baptist Collegiate Ministry, said Jones’ faith has made all the difference.
“Nobody needs to feel sorry for this guy,” Hyatt said. “This dude is stronger than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Jones grew up in Augusta with his older brother, Gabriel, and younger brother, John-Paul, the sons of Clara Ramon and Ken Jones.
He played Miracle League baseball and made frequent trips to Shriners Children’s Greenville for treatment, his parents said. He was a National Honor student at Lakeside High School in Evans, Georgia, they said.
National Honor student
As a child, Jones scooted around the house on his knees, but a surgery in 3rd grade put an end to that mode of travel, his parents said. Through high school, he was able to walk with a walker, they said.
“We always treated him and his brothers the same,” Ramon said. “We didn’t treat Michael like he had a disability or anything like that. We always tried to push him as much as we could and tried to find different ways to play or communicate.”
Jones said he started getting serious about pursuing engineering as a career toward the end of his junior year in high school.
“There wasn’t any one moment or project,” he said. “It just lined up with my talents and aspirations. I’m good at math, I love problem-solving and I want to help people with disabilities maximize what they can do in life.”
When it was time for Jones to move to Clemson, his parents wondered how he would handle living on his own. But Ken Jones remembered experiencing a shift when he and Ramon visited their son on campus the second time.
“We were on our way back to Augusta from Clemson, and all of a sudden I just felt peace,” he recalled. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘Clara, Mike was a National Honor student, and he’s earned the right to try. Worst case scenario, we’re two hours away.’”
‘I am going to graduate’
That first year in college was difficult, Jones said. While he got good grades on exams, he struggled with the workload because of how long it took him, he said.
A pivotal moment came when Jones went to see Joe Watkins, chair of the Department of General Engineering.
“I basically told him, ‘I am going to graduate in mechanical engineering– help me,'” Jones recalled. “I’m so grateful for him. I probably wouldn’t be here today without his help.”
Watkins said he helped coordinate support and worked with faculty to ensure Jones had equitable ways to engage with the curriculum and demonstrate his understanding.
“Throughout all of this, what stood out most was Michael himself,” Watkins said. “His enthusiasm, determination and infectiously optimistic outlook shaped every interaction. Spending even 15 minutes with Michael had a way of changing how you viewed your own circumstances, reminding all of us what persistence and perspective can accomplish.”
Not impossible
Among those who were key to helping Jones navigate his first year was John Minor, a General Engineering principal lecturer who had Jones in two classes. Before one of those classes, Minor suggested that Jones invest in an eye-tracking system so that he would be able to operate SolidWorks, a brand of design software that typically requires a mouse.
Minor and Jones learned to use the eye-tracking system together. The two developed a rapport and still check in about once a semester.
“He’s really bright,” Minor said. “In a lot of ways, he’s showing that limited physical ability is not a dealbreaker in getting through college.”
Across campus, Jones also made an impression on Todd Schweisinger, a principal lecturer who had him as a student in a mechanical engineering class.
“In order to be successful in engineering, almost all of us had to work problems by hand,” Schweisinger said. “What makes him amazing is he can learn engineering without doing the homework on paper. He just listens. Any engineer I’ve met would say that’s impossible.”
But Jones hasn’t learned only in the classroom– he has applied it in two summer internships with Textron Specialized Vehicles. In his first internship in summer 2025, he designed tooling aimed at improving production and cutting costs, earning him a second internship this year.
Making friends
“I learned a lot of basics in manufacturing,” Jones said of his first internship. “But most importantly, this was my first job of any kind, so I learned that it may actually be possible for me to have a job.”
Another pivotal moment came when Minor suggested to Jones that he try to meet a few friends and make some college memories. So, at the beginning of his sophomore year, Jones decided to check out Baptist Collegiate Ministry.
Hyatt remembered receiving an email one afternoon with the subject line, “Could you please help me?” That night, Jones and Hyatt met for the first time.
Jones began attending Bible teachings with groups of fellow students and meeting with Hyatt individually. It took Hyatt about three months of weekly conversations to learn to understand Jones’ speech.
Over the next couple years, Hyatt watched Jones build genuine relationships with men his age.
“Michael wasn’t a project for these guys,” Hyatt said. “It was literally a mutual give and take in the friendship. I think it took him a while to trust that people would actually want to love him and be his friend, not because he has special needs but just because of who he is. These guys have learned to listen.”
‘God’s got me’
Jones has done service with the ministry as well, twice sharing his life story with the group and serving on a panel to teach others what it is like to have limited mobility and speech.
“Peter has been a rock for me over the past two and a half years, helping me rebuild social confidence, tearing down unhealthy skepticism and showing me what a Jesus follower looks like,” Jones said.
With the countdown to graduation ticking, Jones said that as he looks to the future he plans to do whatever God wants him to do and that his career and engineering will be the tools to get the job done.
The exact path isn’t certain, but for Jones not much is, except maybe for help from above.
“I never know how I’m going to do the next thing,” he said. “At the start of most semesters, I literally don’t know how I’ll make it through the semester. God’s got me.”
