economy
ON TRACK: Brandon Kempenich’s internship with DeZURIK has him on track to reach his goal of becoming a mechanical engineer.
Countdown to Careers Career exploration initiatives help high school students land internships, apprenticeships and learn about close-to-home opportunities By Bob McClintick
As a boy, Brandon Kempenich had an insatiable appetite for all things mechanical. He didn’t just squeeze the trigger on his remote-controlled car to watch it zoom and veer and careen. He tore the car down. Ripped the engine out. Changed the gearing. He tinkered to learn, understand and enhance its performance. And his NERF blasters, well, the off-the-shelf product just wouldn’t do. Kempenich would disassemble his toy guns, harvest the springs and stack them into a single blaster to make it shoot softtipped darts harder, farther. Kempenich channeled his engineering enthusiasm into junior high and high school robotics, where he explored computer-aided design, 3-D printing and learned about plasma cutting and laser engraving. Today, the 2021 Sartell High School graduate is enrolled in a two-year program with the Center for Manufacturing and Applied Engineering at St. Cloud Technical and Community College. His goal is to become a mechanical engineer, and his current educational pathway, coupled with an internship at DeZURIK, an Initiative Foundation Community Builders Circle member, has him well on his way.
“I applied for the DeZURIK internship because I knew I was staying close to home for my schooling,” said Kempenich, who learned about the Sartell company’s global industrial valve manufacturing during a school tour. His high school industrial arts instructor, Joe Schulte, helped make the DeZURIK internship connection. “I thought, ‘Hey, if I had an internship possibility here and the schooling I want, I really don’t need to go anywhere.’” Kempenich is just one of many young people across Central Minnesota who local businesspeople and educators hope will soon be moving from high schools to regional workplaces. As parents, educators and workforce experts rethink the current trend of pointing high school graduates to university educations, local companies and nonprofits are creating innovative programs to showcase careers that don’t require such a steep commitment of time and financial resources. Through career exploration programs like St. Cloud’s EPIC— Exploring Potential Interests and Careers—and Bridges Career Academies and Workplace Connection in Brainerd, both of which are supported by Initiative Foundation grants, high school students are learning about close-to-home opportunities, many of which do CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
8 Initiative Foundation ifound.org
