TEMPE, AZ — During graduation week at Arizona State University, more than 21,000 students will earn their degrees—marking the largest class in the university’s history.
However for Clayton Burkhardt, crossing the stage is more than a milestone. It’s a triumph over a life-threatening diagnosis that began mid-flight.
In 2021, Burkhardt was piloting a U.S. military Chinook helicopter during a training mission in Germany when something suddenly felt off.
“It felt like a reset… like your computer just glitched,” he recalled. “I was sitting there, wondering, ‘what’s happening right now?’”
Though he landed safely, he didn’t realize at the time he was beginning a new fight to stay alive.
After the incident, doctors diagnosed him with a highly malignant brain tumor.
What followed were multiple surgeries, including one where he was awake.
“They were showing me cards with animals and items,” Burkhardt said. “I had to tell them what they were. Then they got to a giraffe…I knew what it was, but I couldn’t say it.”
While he knew the risks of the surgery, he was shocked the tumor had taken his speech in that moment.
Clayton Burkhardt
But with months of recovery and relentless determination, Burkhardt relearned how to communicate and returned to his online studies at ASU, which he had begun while still serving in the military.
Now, he’s graduating from the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering with a degree in electrical engineering. He also has a new mission: Improving MRI and imaging technologies that helped diagnose and treat him.
He says while the current technology is good, he is eager to see how he can help advance the field.
“Some of the tests they did were pretty crazy—very interesting,” he said. “To help in that area would be something I’d like to do.”
His message to others navigating serious challenges on their journey to graduation is to keep pushing.
“Just because you’re going through that doesn’t mean there’s not something on the other side,” he said.
Burkhardt is already planning to start his master’s in engineering after graduation and hopes to write a book about his story.
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