Custom Aluminum Offers High School Students Internship Experience

Custom Aluminum

Offers High School Students Internship Experience By: Chris Walker

Several years ago, Custom Aluminum CEO Steve Dillett and President Shane Tredup were looking for a way to give back to the Genoa and Hampshire area.

They found it by developing a work-study program for high school students and a summer internship program for those 18 years of age and older. The offerings are an extension of Custom Aluminum’s longstanding emphasis on having a knowledgeable staff and valuing its employees as it offers onsite educational classes from entry level to advanced concepts.

“Those two gentlemen were looking for a way to offer something to students where they could learn about manufacturing,” said Alex Dumoulin, sales engineering manager for Custom Aluminum. “We come to the schools and talk about the program. In the past we’ve been able to visit schools and meet with industrial tech classrooms and talk to professors but with the pandemic, the plan is to make the most of it that we can.”

The work study program affords high school seniors from Genoa-Kingston and Hampshire the opportunity to attend school in the morning and join Custom Aluminum in the afternoon for four hours a day, five days a week and learn about the engineering side of the business.

“They create prints, all sorts of drawings, so they get a general feel for that,” Dumoulin said. “Before COVID we’d have retired professors from Kishwaukee (Community College)and Waubonsee (Community College) come in and teach sections as well. It’s a year-long program so they get a lot of exposure so that by the time they are done with senior year, and depending on their performance, they can receive a two-year, full-ride scholarship to community college.”

Alanna Wilcox, who graduated from NIU a couple years ago with her master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering, has been employed with Custom Aluminum for seven years. She spent her afternoons during her senior year at Genoa-Kingston High School learning about various aspects of the business through the work-study program.

“I had no intention of doing it because it didn’t exist my freshman year and when I went into high school I wanted to be a chef,” she said. “But doing different projections and drawings in a technical way was something that interested me and some of my sophomore friends did a pilot program and it sounded interesting to me and I always did well in math and science.”

Today, Wilcox’s interests have led her to her current role as samples manager at Custom Aluminum. In a short time, she’s also been a computer aided design drafter, engineering supervisor and samples engineer for Custom Aluminum.

“I actually ran the work-study program for a few years while I was still in college and taught them about the manufacturing,” she said. “One of the biggest things I remember is I did a survey at the end of the year and the one thing they always said was they were nervous to come into a room of adults so it was nice relating to a young adult.”

Hunter Busse, a 2017 graduate of Genoa-Kingston, learned about the work-study opportunity during his junior year of high school and was spending time at Custom Aluminum every other day the following year.

“I learned a lot and started coming in every day since most of my credits were already done,” he said. “I like doing more of the design stuff and the summer after I graduated from high school I worked on a couple projects working alongside maintenance and different departments and it was really fun. It wasn’t like the normal work we do, it was kind of spontaneous and whatnot.”

Being around others with a similar mindset and a passion for math and sciences has helped people like Busse do something they enjoy alongside others with similar interests.

“Math has always come naturally and I’m able to visualize stuff in my head,” he said. “Most people here in our department have a similar mindset. We’re all going for engineering and have that perfectionist mindset.”

Wrapping his head around the fact that Custom Aluminum does business with big names might be more challenging than the impressive work he’s been doing there.

“For a small town company we deal with the big names and I never would’ve guessed that being in the middle of nowhere Illinois,” he said. “It’s kind of fascinating that we can make a decent-size impact.”

And that impact is being made by employees like him who were first introduced to the industry-side of work through the collaborative program between the school and Custom Aluminum.

“We learn by doing,” he said.

That includes by doing the summer internship program, which is a more recent offering. Last year, Custom Aluminum welcomed three participants that worked with the staff in Genoa for full workdays on the floor while learning what Custom Aluminum does on the manufacturing side of business.

It’s a win-win for Custom Aluminum and those participating in the two programs. Manufacturing companies like Custom Aluminum have faced a lack of interest from students in pursuing manufacturing careers and finding skilled workers is a common concern while many kids don’t know what to pursue. By sharing its resources, Custom Aluminum has been able to educate and potentially find new employees or help get them started in related careers.

Blessed with a clean, well-lit, climate controlled, safe work environment that features state of the art equipment and machinery, kids are provided with a real-life classroom to learn about working in the manufacturing world. Engineering, math, CNC machining and programming, metrology, welding, robotics, quality statistics, and standard operating procedures and methodologies are among the many subject areas participants can learn more about at Custom Aluminum.

Such diverse exposure and professional guidance from staff and expert guests provides them with a real-world understanding as they move forward in pursuing their respective careers.