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Students creating product to improve process for local company, get work experience
Students creating product to improve process for local company, get work experience
Three students from Pattonville High School have a unique opportunity to develop something that will help employees at a local company with a daunting task. And it comes with the chance to work on real U.S. military hardware. The students are working at Leonardo DRS, a defense contractor developing advanced technologies, as part of an Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) this semester. ELOs are learning opportunities driven by each individual student’s interests that give them exposure to real-world experiences.
Juniors Reagan Nelson and Xander Werthmuller and senior Nick Rice are partnering with Leonardo DRS staff to design, project manage and market a tool to remove sticker labels that are added onto items delivered to the company in order to enable laser scanning to create a 3D digital model of the item. But it is difficult and time consuming to manually remove the stickers when scanning is complete. The trio started their ELO at Leonardo DRS in January and go to the company’s Bridgeton campus weekly as part of their school day. During the course of the semester, they will work through the process to bring their sticker removal product through development which includes figuring out and comparing the cost of the current and an improved sticker removal processes and working on marketing and business tasks.
Each student is working with a mentor at Leonardo DRS who specializes in their individual area of interest: Nelson is working with marketing and communications specialist Ally Garrison; Rice, who is interested in accounting, has partnered with Mary Engelkemeyer, manager of financial reporting; and Werthmuller is exploring engineering with senior manager and mechanical engineer Saleem Kashif. The duos work together on their specialized area of the project and then meet regularly to discuss as a group.
“As it pertains to Xander, I am supporting as he works through developing a product that will be used to support our reverse engineering process,” Kashif said. “This product will be a tool that aids users in quickly and ergonomically removing adhesive-backed scanning targets from surfaces. The development process entails defining the problem statement, assessing the market for existing solutions and patents, developing a project proposal for funding authorization, building a project schedule, creating product requirements, concept development and prototyping.”
To better understand the needs of the Leonardo DRS staff and their current process, the students met with employees who are part of the scanning process from working on the front end of program capture or in research and development, as well as employees who manage the program execution phase. In the coming weeks, the collaboration will shift to focus on the development of the product.
The ELO has been an opportunity for the students to get first-hand experience in a field they are interested in exploring as a career. For them, it has only deepened their interest in that field, and even opened up other opportunities within that area.
“I think it has broadened my view on what I want to do,” Rice said. “I definitely believe I want to stick with accounting, but as I continue down that road, I believe I could expand the things I put myself into. Maybe begin to look into project management or maybe even financial advising.”
This experience is a large part of why the mentors at Leonardo DRS wanted to get involved.
“It is my hope that the students gain enough insight into what their day-to-day job would be like to decide if they truly want to pursue the required degree associated with their area of interest,” Kashif said. “I was fortunate enough to have chosen a major that led to a career I have truly enjoyed. But if that hadn’t been the case, I would have paid a lot of money for a degree I didn’t really need. In addition to providing the students with experience in an area they currently feel they want to pursue, we are getting them face time with other disciplines within the company to see if that may spark an interest.”
In addition to the knowledge they are gaining through the project, the students are also learning about what it’s like to work in a professional environment.
“A normal day usually consists of following my mentor and learning a little bit more about her day and what she does within her occupation,” Rice said. “We meet with people in her division and with my peers that also partake in the ELO to combine our ideas and collaborate within the experience as a whole. In doing this, I learn processes of the job, I pick up on skills I need to know for my field of interest and I create relationships within the workplace that could carry on to become partnerships down the line. I have learned many soft skills, things like communicating and the tone of voice you use when in a meeting amongst peers. Alongside that, I have also learned skills that correlate with accounting. Things such as skills within Excel and learning how to navigate different documents and pieces of information.”
Werthmuller’s experience has been similar and also includes shadowing engineers in a variety of fields, including an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer and project manager.
“My favorite part of the ELO so far has been being able to see how each individual role plays a part in the final product,” Werthmuller said. “I have learned how a business works as a whole and how there are different parts that work in unison to accomplish a collective goal.”
Similarly for Rice, he has enjoyed learning from the people he’s had the chance to meet and work with.
“I think my favorite part is the opportunity to meet with other people within the business and learn aspects of the financial world,” Rice said. “Being able to obtain the thoughts and guidance from multiple viewpoints is something that I don’t take lightly.”
While the students have only been at Leonardo DRS for about a month, the mentors are already seeing positive changes in the students.
“I’ve noticed that the students have grown in confidence,” Kashif said. “The first meeting, there was a sense of hesitancy and perhaps shyness. As we’ve had more interaction, they are vocalizing questions, independently coming up with ideas and are really engaged.”
Kashif, who graduated from Pattonville in 2005, looks at this as an opportunity to pay it forward.
“When I was a senior, I took a principles of engineering course and there was an assignment that had me interview a functional engineer,” he said. “In that process, I discovered that the discipline I thought I wanted to pursue wasn’t what I really wanted to do for a career. I’m hopeful that this has a similar impact for the students.”
In addition to the ELO program, Leonardo DRS has partnered with Pattonville in a variety of ways. Staff members are serving on an industry advisory board and have mentored students in the FIRST Robotics program, participated in career fairs, hosted students on facility tours and served as judges for mock robotics competitions. The company is also looking to grow its collaboration by establishing summer internship opportunities.
“Our partnership with Leonardo DRS has been incredibly rewarding, offering unparalleled learning opportunities for both our students and staff,” said Odetta Smith, director of innovation and life readiness. “This collaboration connects us with a global leader right here in our community, providing invaluable insights and fostering a fresh perspective on how industry expertise can enrich the learning experience. Students have been exposed to job shadowing, ELOs and internship programs, opening doors to exciting future possibilities.”
