Every young adult inevitably learns to answer the same repetitive question: What are your plans after graduation? This is a straightforward question for some, but many find it challenging to discover their path in life without a means to discover any professional interests first. It’s a big jump, and without a way to try different jobs out for yourself, it can be an impossible question to answer. That’s why Connected Lane County and Western Shelter teamed up over the 2022 summer to give four young adults this opportunity.

“It’s so important [high school students] are testing careers out when they are young, so they know what next steps to make. It’s important for them to learn, on their own, what they’re passionate about,”

Now two years old, the Elevate Program works to pair high school upperclassmen with internships related to career interests. For the summer, Western Shelter decided to become a partner and took on four students. Two would be working with engineering and production, one with marketing, and the last one in finance. Together they would each work 200 hours and learn from real-world professionals in their field of choice. Additionally, through outside funding, Lane County would pay the interns $15 an hour, which is almost unheard of for a high school internship. “It’s so important [high school students] are testing careers out when they are young, so they know what next steps to make. It’s important for them to learn, on their own, what they’re passionate about,” said Program Manager Lizzie Brown. Elevate is proud to house a diverse cohort of students, with women, rural, and BIPOC community members making up roughly 70 percent of all the students involved.

“By the end of their 200 hours, both students knew what it was like to work as full-time engineers..”

The two interns working in Western Shelter’s engineering department took on the task of taking old legacy information and old drawings from a former CAD program and updating them to modern software. “Together, they created over 60 skid drawings,” Sustainment Engineer Manager James Beeler said. “I was pretty proud of them.” Their work didn’t stop just there, though. The students were a massive help in setting up the Quonset Huts for displays and photo shoots. By the end of the internship, this ended up being their favorite part of the job. Beeler constantly added to what they worked on to imitate a real-world environment. By the end of their 200 hours, both students knew what it was like to work as full-time engineers. But the interns weren’t the only ones to benefit. 

“It was cool to see careers and school from that perspective again and to answer all those questions about it.”

Western Shelter felt the favorable effects of the interns becoming a part of the company’s culture. Beeler believed the younger energy from the students woke up the staff from their regular routine and admitted them to an environment where questions became the norm and allowed a few engineers to become mentors in their own way. This was the case for Mechanical Project Engineer Tim Riley: “It was fun to answer questions about college and engineering because they’re high school students who are interested in engineering. It was cool to see careers and school from that perspective again and to answer all those questions about it.” Being a mentor to the next generation is a rewarding experience and adds a layer of depth to the working environment that would otherwise not have been there. Elevate has done nothing but improve the professional experience of those involved with the program and helped spring new life into the businesses involved. 

In the Pacific Northwest, industrial arts has yet to establish itself as a common career option compared to other regions within the United States. The lack of representation has made it difficult to recruit people into more industrial roles while people are young. In recent years, the PNW has seen an uptake in industrial manufacturing move to the region, yet there is a lack of labor needed to run it. Currently, there is not enough infrastructure to support creating the talent to fill all the jobs coming this way. However, programs like Elevate are a good step in the right direction to building this infrastructure and allow young adults to discover a career path they would otherwise not know about. Western Shelter is proud to be a part of this new movement and looks forward to working with Connected Lane County again.