Vincennes University Jasper helps high school students explore local job opportunities
Vincennes University Jasper recently partnered with local businesses and organizations to provide more than 550 high school students with a first-hand exploration of job opportunities in Dubois County.
VU Jasper, Dubois Strong, Hub19, the Patoka Valley Co-op, and the four Dubois County school corporations collaborated on planning the Tour of Opportunity.
During the daylong Tour of Opportunity, students from four Dubois County school corporations learned about career choices such as information technology, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, law enforcement, and building trades.
Students interacted with VU Jasper administrators and instructors along with industry experts throughout the day. They completed a skills assessment test and participated in hands-on activities such as bricklaying.
“It’s a lot more difficult than I thought it would be,” Will Gubbins, a Jasper High School student, said while trying to place mortar on a layer of brick.
At VU Jasper’s Center for Technology, Innovation, and Manufacturing, Rick Applegate, owner of Precision Farming Solutions, explained the role of drones and other technology in agriculture. He also gave students the opportunity to operate a planter simulation.
VU Jasper student Dennis Tedrow told the younger students about an important lesson he learned about higher education: For many students, larger schools aren’t the best path. He said large class sizes at the private university he formerly attended made it difficult to interact with professors. The cost of tuition and other school expenses also was considerably more expensive than at VU Jasper.
The Tour of Opportunity is an example of VU Jasper’s efforts to connect students to local industry in hopes of meeting the wide variety of future workforce needs. At day’s end, students went home with hands-on experience in important local trades, new-found knowledge of these trades, and access to future opportunities through Vincennes University Jasper.
