Career Pathways Newsletter

WBLAHS Graduate Spotlight

Meet Nina! Nina graduated from WBLAHS in 2019. Today, Nina is a successful entrepreneur and business owner! When the pandemic started she launched Nina's Niche. At the time, Nina was doing hair as a hobby but because of the pandemic she lost her job. Nina did hair on the side throughout high school but it wasn't something she had ever taken seriously. As time went on, Nina's idea started to gain traction. In 2020, Nina took a leap of faith, quit her job, and decided to pursue her hair business full-time while she attends university. In one month, she tripled her income!

"To me, owning a business is what is necessary for me to reach the financial freedom and status that I am working hard to attain." Nina is currently double majoring in Pre-Law and International Relations and plans to pursue an International Law Career. "My goal is to eventually move abroad to West Africa and create my own non-profit organization for women pursuing a better quality life and education." Way to go Nina! To say we are proud of you is an understatement! To learn more about Nina's work and to make an appointment, visit her Instagram page @ninas.niche. 

Congrats to the 2021 MN Trades Academy Graduates

WBLAHS - North Campus was the proud host of the 2021 MN Trades Academy (MTA) program in collaboration with Ramsey County and Construction Careers Foundation. Throughout the paid internship, students visited and learned with a variety of Union Training Centers including Boilermakers, Bricklayers, Carpenters, Cement Masons, Electricians, Finishing Trades, Ironworkers, Laborers, Operating Engineers, Pipefitters, Roofers, and Sheet Metal.

Congratulations to the following WBLAHS students for completing MTA: Ariel Acosta, Nick Berends, Cameron Bayless-Dolan, Sarah Hendrickson, Jaykwon Johnson, Abigail Lillo, Michael Mehle, Ernest Taye, and Paul Tierney. Thank you to Dan Rossiter and his team who continue to lead the way for students committed to pursuing skilled trades after high school.

WBLAS Hosts Connected & Autonomous Vehicle Camp

For the first time ever, WBLAS hosted the Connected & Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) Camp. During the week of August 9 through 13, high school students experienced and learned with Subaru, Dart Transit and Tesla, companies that are already using autonomous technology to make the road a safer place for everyone. The CAV Camp helped students understand the future of the Transportation Systems Industry is not just for the car enthusiast. Rather, the industry will need programmers, coders, designers, mathematicians, service technicians, engineers, and much more!

Automotive Career Pathway Instructor, Derek Doescher said “it is super important to expose the students to future technologies because this will be what they are working on during their careers. Technology is improving faster than society can keep up with. With exposure opportunities like this, not only does it excite the students about the future, but it also helps them to begin dreaming about what their future will hold for them.”

Congratulations to the following WBLAHS students who completed the camp: William Heise, Jackson Kinde, Dov Nathanson, Anthony Sabatine, Braden Wohlfeil, and Vincent Yang. We send a huge thank you to our partners who helped make the CAV Camp a success: AECOM, Bolton & Menk, Center of Transportation Studies, City of Minneapolis Traffic Management Center, City of White Bear Lake, DART Transit, DeLaval, HDR, MN Department of Transportation, NAVYA, NewTrax, Polaris, SICK, Stantec, Tesla, the University of Minnesota, Transportation Center of Excellence, and White Bear Subaru for working together to shape the future.

NEW! Anchor Mentors are Ready for the School Year!

On August 10 & 11, a group of 30+ high school students received training to become the first group of high school students to participate in the Anchor Mentor program which is a mentor program for middle school students by high school students. Aaron Turner will be leading the Anchor Mentors throughout the school year and also serves as WBLAHS - South Campus' Academic Achievement Interventionist and coaches Baseball and Football. Be on the lookout for all the amazing things these students have planned to make learning fun, engaging, and meaningful! This program is possible thanks to Greater Twin Cities United Way and their Career Academies Grant.

Thank you for attending the annual Employer Engagement event!

Once again, the annual Employer Engagement Webinar was a success. This year, we had over 75 people tune in to the live webinar and many more listened to the recording. Thank you so much to our 2021-22 Bear Pride Sponsors for donating money to WBL Career Pathways which will help support students, costs related to career readiness, Career Pathways events, and much more. If you would like to get involved with WBL Career Pathways for the upcoming school year, be sure to fill out the Menu of Options for local industry partners. Thank you for working together to shape the future!

Congratulations to:

• Rachel Bridgeman for being hired on as a Manley Gardening intern.
• Rosemary Hammond for going from Gen Z Connections intern to employee at Walser Polar Chevrolet.
• Austin Stiles for going from Gen Z Connections intern to employee at Fairway Collision & Automotive.
• Noah Ames Rupert for going from Gen Z Connections intern to employee at MME Group, Inc.

Thank You to:

• S.P. Richards Co. for donating office supplies to WBL Career Pathways for the upcoming school year.
• WBLAHS - South Campus student, Carson Verhulst for creating the final Peace Garden video.
• AutoNation Ford for donating and delivering an on-car brake lathe with adapters. 

ARE YOU STILL HIRING?

Send jennifer.moore@isd624.org your job description today!