July 2022
Career Pathways Newsletter
July 2022
Get your spot for the annual Employer Engagement Breakfast! This year, the event will be on August 17 from 8:00 to 10:00 AM at Jimmy's Event Center. The annual event is free to attend and Bear Pride Sponsorships are accepted by all industry partners. During the event you will get to connect, network, learn about all the great things that happened this last school year, and get involved for next school year. Leave feeling inspired and geared up to continue to work together to shape the future. To register, click HERE.
A Sincere Thank You
A quick 1st person note from the author of your Career Pathways Newsletter. I just wanted to send a sincere thank you to Liz Williams and Sareen Keenan Dunleavy from Greater Twin Cities United Way for the nomination to receive the 2022 Vern Vick Award. On June 2, I had the honor of being presented with the award by Ramsey County's Workforce Innovation Board for leadership in youth career development and dedication to the empowerment of young people. I truly love what I do and it's because of people like you who show up for our students that help make coming to work a privilege. Thank you!
Internships are in Full Swing!
Summer of 2022 has been like no other and we are partnering with more employers than ever before! June was packed with visiting student interns who are learning on-the-job skills related to a variety of careers and getting paid for a quality learning experience. Not only will students get to "earn and learn" but some will have an opportunity to continue working part- or full-time upon completion. Thank you so much to our local employers who are dedicating their time and expertise. And thank you to programs like MN DLI's Youth Skills Training by supporting employers to bring workers under the age of 18 years old into their companies. We appreciate you!
2022 Graduate, Rosemary Hammond and WBLAHS Senior, Lily Larson work at Walser Polar Chevrolet. This year, they are hosting interns in the parts, service invoice, auto tech, and runner/detailer departments. Thank you to Steve Tuschen for opening up your doors to our students this year.
2021 Graduate and past intern, Austin Stiles visits with Automotive Career Pathway Instructor, Derek Doescher about working full-time at Fairway Collision & Automotive after completing his internship last year. Thank you to Pete Goscinski and the whole Fairway Team for welcoming the new interns!
2022 Graduate, Brock Taugner; WBLAHS Senior, Destyne Miller, and WBLAHS Junior, Spencer Anderson work with Brian Burth at his new State Farm Insurance office. Students are learning a variety of skills including sales, marketing, customer relations, branding, business management and more!
WBLAHS Senior, Vincent Yang works with Newtrax mechanic, James. Newtrax provides transportation services to adults with disabilities and is also housing the Bear Tracks Autonomous Vehicle Shuttle which will begin its pilot project this month.
Tyler Sadek from Parsons Electric sits with WBLAHS Junior, Jack Binsfeld in their Virtual Design Center. Jack is learning how to design a variety of electrical components for large commercial properties on Revit software and will get to see it come alive in 3D models and real life structures.
Staff Training for YMHFA
For the 2nd year in a row, Health & Wellness Career Pathway Teachers, Shannon Riebow and Katie Marsh trained a group of staff members to complete their Youth Mental Health First Aid Certification. Support staff, classroom teachers, special educators, nurses and more showed up for the opportunity to become nationally certified. To date, WBLAS has trained over 60 staff members and 60 students. Thanks to a generous grant from Greater Twin Cities United Way, we continue to implement valuable industry recognized credentials to invest in human capital and contribute to the future workforce.
ALL DATA Certified
Congrats to the career pathway students who became ALLDATA Certified this school year which proves to future employers they are able to research and troubleshoot a variety of problems in the transportation systems industry. Automotive Career Pathway Instructor, Derek Doescher adds "the ALLDATA Certification is super important because it is impossible to memorize everything about all the makes and models. This allows students to be experts in their field and use the resources available to them as professionals." Way to go!
Left to Right: Hayden Thies-Huber, Isaac Debilzan, and Benjamin Broich
Left to Right: Sean Thompson, Benjamin Mullin, and Connor Gerrell
Graduate Spotlight
WBL Career Pathways provides alumni support to all of our graduates and 2019 Graduate, Gavin Tschida is proving that his participation in WBL Career Pathways was worth it. Tschida just wrapped up his second year at UW-Stout while he studies Mechanical Engineering. He participated in Gen Z Connections in 2019 by working at Herold Precision Metals, Renstrom Dental Studio, Superior Machine, and Mold Craft (which is now Westfall Technik).
Thanks to what he learned in his paid internships, Gavin was offered a college internship at Advanced Molding Technologies. They manufacture fluid path medical products using plastic injection molding processes. Gavin said, "I am now very grateful that I did the Gen Z internship because it helped me decide on engineering and opened me up to the idea of going to UW-Stout. I think the experience looked good on my resume and helped me get this internship." Way to go Gavin!
