Success Stories

Darcy Kuehn - Marine Designer

Following High School in Washington State, Darcy entered the Navy and found herself stationed in Virginia. After her service in the Navy, she enrolled in the Apprenticeship program offered through Northrop Grumman in Newport News. “I help design propulsion systems for 688 Class subs. I’m not an engineer yet, but I still get the opportunity to come up with ideas and drawings. When one of my drawings gets implemented, I have a little piece of ownership in that boat.”  Darcy is currently enrolled at ODU, where she will receive her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and she also has plans to earn a Master’s Degree.

Matthew Koren - Millwright

Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him, Matthew Koren is a millwright (a specialized technician who installs and maintains industrial machinery). But he's the first in his family to enter the field through a registered apprenticeship program.

The four-year program began for Matthew soon after high school with an introductory Millwright Unit I class, taught through his local union. From there, Matthew recalls, “I went to John Tyler Community College and took machining, welding, and blueprint-reading classes, then I went to West Virginia for rigging and turbine classes."

While taking classes at night, Matthew gained on-the-job experience during the day, working on such diverse projects as the Ford truck assembly line in Norfolk and the HyperSonic XLC” ride at King's Dominion. ("That was a good job," says Matthew. "I aligned rails for cars to go around the track, set transfer tracks, set the scales to know how much air pressure to shoot the cars with.")

One of the attractions of the occupation for Koren is that you gain a variety of different skills: we work on turbines and generators, conveyors, pumps, and motors.” He adds that another attraction about the job is that it's a good, solid future, with good benefits, and good retirement.”

With his apprenticeship behind him, Matthew can now work toward achieving full journeyman status within his trade. But for the moment, he's just looking forward to doing what he likes best, which is getting out there and building something.”

Luke Buzzard - Production Machinist

Technical Talents

When Luke Buzzard enrolled in that Precision Machining Technology class as a 10th-grader, he wasn’t expecting it to turn into a career. “I didn’t know what I was getting into,” he recalls. “I thought I would take something different…and somebody suggested I might like being in the machine shop. I enjoyed it…so the next year, instead of one hour, I took two, and two in my senior year. As a senior, I competed in a SkillsUSA competition and won state, then went on to nationals. Before the nationals, I had to go to a company to learn CNC programming (because we mostly had manual machines at my high school). The company I trained at ended up hiring me!”

Melissa Craig - Electrical Technician

Sometimes You Choose a Career When You Choose a Class

At the end of her 10th-grade year at Carroll County High School, Melissa Craig had to pick an elective for her junior year. “We took a tour of all the elective classes,” she recalls, “and electronics looked interesting. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I thought I’d try it; I liked it right away.”

In Electronics I, Melissa says she learned the basics of DC power, and then moved on to AC in the second year with Electronics II.

After graduation, those two classes transferred over to New River Community College as one course…but her studies then took a slight turn. “I started out in electronics,” Melissa explains, “but I ended up getting a degree in instrumentation.”

She was able to put that instrumentation degree to work soon after graduation, as an electrical technician for McKee Foods. In her job, she helps keep the factory’s machinery running smoothly. “I like the whole troubleshooting part of it. Every day is something a little different.”

The knowledge she gained in her high school classes is still an important part of Melissa’s work. “The basics are the main thing…. I still use the formulas I learned [in high school.]”