Your complete guide to local career and education • Spring 2019
CAREER & EDUCATION
OPPORTUNITIES Special Supplement to The Glendale Star and Peoria Times
INSIDE This Issue
CELEBRATE .....2
Varsity Facility celebrates 60th anniversary
GLENDALE CHAMBER ......8 Importance of internships
SERVICES .... 11 Westside Headstart expanding services
National electrical company powers high school team BY OCTAVIO SERRANO
Stephan Cole said it’s too bad some high school students don’t think they’ll be successful unless they go to college. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen a vast majority of high school students thinking that if they don’t go to college, they’re not going to amount to anything,” Cole said. “We want to be there to show them there’s another path.” Cole is the workforce development coordinator of Rosendin Electric Inc., a San Josebased electrical contracting company that has an office in Tempe. Rosendin encourages high school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). “We have a skilled worker shortage that is getting worse by the minute,” Cole said. “We have a majority of our current staff that is retiring, and we also are challenged with the fact that we have incoming workers that don’t have a lot of mechanical aptitude anymore.” To encourage the youth to pursue STEM careers, Rosendin sponsored students from Glendale’s Independence High School so they could learn about the field’s concepts. They did so by participating in Racing the Sun, a yearly competition during which teens build a solar-powered kart. Rosendin has been an event sponsor since 2016. More than 100 students from 12 Arizona schools competed with their custom-made, solar-powered karts on the 1,264-meter track at the Musselman Honda Circuit in Tucson. The Rosendin and IHS team placed sixth, and their fastest lap time was 80.219 seconds. Rosendin officials met the IHS students when they were at Construction Career Days. The Rosendin staff gave the team a chance to speak about why the company should invest in the IHS engineering science program. “They came, and they did their presentation, and before they even completed their
Rosendin wants to inspire students to pursue STEM careers. (Photo Courtesy Rosendin Electric Inc.)
presentation, we were sold,” Cole said. The Rosendin staff didn’t help them build the cart, rather they supported them financially so they could buy the necessary materials and resources. Rosendin employees also brought student teams into its prefabrication department to introduce them to new ideas and best practices for building their go-kart. Even the instructors stepped back, so the kids must use their mechanical skills to design and build the project. “They love it. The idea that you can get out of a classroom environment to build something, you feel a lot of excitement in that,” Cole said. “Rosendin is a large financial sponsor for us, so every year we’ll get cash funds to buy nearly everything we need,” added IHS engineering science instructor Matthew Massic. Materials IHS purchased with the funds include aluminum, 3-D printing plastic, a brake bleeding kit, wiring, soldering guns and team T-shirts. Varsity Facility Services is hiring part-time and full-time janitorial positions for offices in the City of Glendale.
Massic said he already has a large group of students who are going to various universities to pursue engineering. “When you get students who finally make that connection and they see that passion they have for something that they love, that’s pretty rewarding,” Massic said. Cole said mingling with the students and talking to them about their ideas was a special experience for Rosendin. “I think the kids we interacted with were so excited about doing this,” Cole said. “When you see that kind of excitement in a project like this, that not only grows their mechanical abilities but their problem solving and team work. It just brings a little more of the real world into that classroom and I can’t imagine anything better.” Rosendin continues to support the program and it is looking forward to building bridges between students and STEM careers. “We’re about building people and investing in the community,” Cole said.
Varsity está solicitando personas para limpieza de oficinas en la Cuidad de Glendale.
Apply in person at: Aplique en persona al:
8930 N 78th Ave. Peoria, AZ 85345