Summer means, sun, grilling out, and summer intern/college workers
We enjoy our summers here at PlastiCert. Starting Memorial Day weekend, we grill out burgers, brats, hot dogs and one special week, pork chops*
Summer also means some temporary college help, both interns and local college youth looking for meaningful employment. This year Was no exception with two interns out of the Winona State University Composite Materials Science Engineering program.
We are very thankful for their talents and efforts in helping us both meet production demands as well as assisting with some summer continuous improvement projects that make life better here at PlastiCert.
Our interns this summer are Noah Strasser and Caleb Whitefoot. Caleb will be a Senior at WSU this Fall. He is from the general area, just across the Mississippi River in Trempealeau WI. Caleb is a hands on guy, his favorite classes in his major so far have been Polymer Science + Characterization, Engineering Graphics and Design, and composites manufacturing. He likes to golf, fish and hike in his spare time. He enjoys sports and hopes to work in the Sporting goods industry upon graduation, saying geographically he’ll move to wherever the opportunity is. Our other intern Noah will also be a Senior this Fall. He has enjoyed his regression analysis and composite manufacturing classes. He hails from the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities. He would prefer to stay in the MN area after graduation and would enjoy working in Sporting Goods or Automotive fields. In his spare time, he likes to hike and read and this is his first exposure to the manufacturing environment. We were pleased to have both Caleb and Noah join our group this summer and were impressed with their capabilities and abilities.
We also have been graced with a number of college students and one post college that are looking for good summer work while they are home. This year we added a high school Junior as well! Leah is working her first job after just getting her drivers license this summer. She really enjoys the people she works with and the variety of tasks she has been assigned. What she enjoys most is getting paid and having some of her own money! Katie graduated from college 3 years ago and is a Middle School math teacher. With school adjourned for the summer she joins us to continue earning money until she goes back to school. She enjoys the work environment and a good change of pace from her classroom. Rylee just graduated High School (she is a PlastiCert scholarship winner) and is off to college this fall. She is going to study kinesiology and will be on the volleyball team at school. She loves the work environment and the people she works with. Kiera is a sales and marketing management major and has been here off and on for a few years sometimes working around her class schedule. Rylee is her cousin and her mother works at PlastiCert as well so she enjoys being able to work around them each day. Michael is a business major at Iowa State and enjoys golf and just “kickin’ it” with his friends in the summer. He likes the hours and the straightforward aspect of work and results. All of them had never been in a manufacturing environment before coming to PlastiCert and enjoyed it enough to want to come back and do it again!
We thank them for their service to PlastiCert and enjoy having them here. They all allow us to get a fresh perspective of our floor operations and how we can make it more efficient and appealing to those new to manufacturing.
*Each year at the local cancer benefit auction, there is a Pork Chop Grilling Block Party up for auction. PlastiCert has had the winning bid the last five years and we make it one of our grilling lunches in August