Laurinburg’s Andrew Hartwell left college during pandemic and founded company

LAURINBURG — The year 2020 marked a significant change in almost everyone’s lives, especially those beginning or ending their education. For some, COVID-19 and college stress proved an unmanageable combination that led people to end their education early. This decision proved to be the best-case scenario for one Laurinburg local.

Andrew Hartwell, 21, graduated from Scotland County High School in the spring of 2020, then continued his education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). He was one of many to realize that semester that college was not for him.

“It was probably the most depressing experience of my life,” he said.

Shortly into the semester, he dropped out, not planning to return any time soon.

After returning home, Hartwell began working with Jonathan McRae, who then worked as a consultant for the school district and went on to become the Career and Technical Education director for Scotland County schools.

“He’s been a large help for me, ever since I was in high school,” Hartwell said.

He met McRae in Scotland High School’s drone class and built a relationship with him throughout high school, taking his classes and working as a CTE intern for the school district.

In late 2020, Hartwell founded his company AHtek Solutions LLC, with the encouragement of his mentor. “I do coding, I do drone flights, I do IT infrastructure and teaching,” Hartwell said. He currently works with Scotland, Edgecomb and Caswell school systems.

In Scotland County, Hartwell is working on building an E-Sports organization. He plans for it to be up and running this year so students can play and compete against other schools.

Hartwell wants to expand his company’s reach and begin working with Richmond County.

“I’m hoping to build another E-Sports team with them, as well as do some certification training,” he said.

The 21-year-old said he hopes to train students in CompTIA certifications, an online program for earning IT credentials, specifically their IT fundamentals course. He also does CompTIA’s advanced certification courses that teach career skills, but students must complete the fundamentals course first. So far, Hartwell has had two students pass the certification test at the end of his classes.

Hartwell said he enjoyed seeing his students learn the skills he had to teach them and watching their development. “One of them tried to figure out how a network works,” he said. “Over time, they got to the point where they could name every network type and device and even give you IP addresses. It was great.”

Of course, running his own company hasn’t been all fun and games. While Dr. McRae still takes on his mentor role, Hartwell has had to forge his own path forward. Part of that path forward may be a break in the company.

“I’m currently in a major change,” Hartwell said. “I’m pushing for a certification called the CISSP(Certified Information Systems Security Professional), one of the industry standards for cybersecurity.”

Hartwell would need two years of experience at another company to get that certification.

The pause in running his company would mean that when he returns, he will work in cybersecurity instead of IT.

“It’s been really hard to figure out what I want to do,” Hartwell said, “because if I take the business further, I could eventually maximize it to where I don’t have to worry about money, but if I take this route, I get a salary instead of me having to work my butt off every day to find jobs.”

Hartwell’s excitement for this line of work stemmed from an early age when he built his own computers. He honed the skills he had a passion for in high school and encourages others to do the same, exploring opportunities to build practical skills they enjoy and find their own success. “Build the skills as much as you can,” he said. “ find as many things as you enjoy and find ways to make money out of it. If you love something, you should be able to make money from it.”