Write a commentOn the last day of their New Vision engineering rotation, local high school seniors Julia Searer, Brody Orr and Parker Koproski received paid internship offers to return to Novelis the summer after their first year of college.
For the past five months, Novelis has partnered with the Center for Instruction, Technology & Innovation’s New Vision program to provide high school students interested in engineering with hands-on learning opportunities through a rotation at the Novelis-Oswego plant.
From February to June, seniors Julia Searer, Brodey Orr and Parker Koproski spent 150 hours at Novelis across 30 visits shadowing engineers, touring the plant, observing problem-solving in meetings and learning about the different roles that engineers play in departments across Novelis.
“Every experience has helped me to pick the career path I wish to pursue for the next four years at Clarkson University,” said Orr, reflecting on his time at Novelis. Searer had a similar experience, sharing that “Going into New Vision, I was positive I was going to be a biomedical engineer. After my experiences at Novelis, I have decided I am most suited for electrical or automation engineering.”
While their rotation at Novelis introduced the three New Vision students to the daily responsibilities of an engineer, it also gave them insight into important characteristics of a workplace environment.
“I was very impressed by the positive and friendly culture at Novelis,” said Koproski. Searer agreed, stating that “From the security guards when we entered the area, to the HR family, to the engineers and technicians, everyone showed kindness and offered their best.”
Although summer internships at Novelis-Oswego are typically granted to students entering their junior and senior years of college, for Julia Clark, the Human Resources Representative at Novelis who facilitated the partnership, giving internship offers to the New Vision students was a no-brainer.
“It was a matter of feedback we received from the floor and from some of the mentors and leaders that they met,” said Clark. “They expressed to us that the students were very invested, engaged, interested in learning, safety-focused and that they could see potential of the students to be long term employees.”
The CiTi BOCES New Vision program combines classroom instruction, college coursework through SUNY Oswego and rotations tailored to career interests to give high school seniors real-world experience and perspective on their fields of choice. While the partnership between Novelis and New Vision is still in its early stages, Novelis looks forward to continuing to build its relationship with New Vision to provide more seniors with hands-on opportunities.
“Our partnership with New Vision allows us to invest in high school seniors at the beginning of their careers by helping them to navigate the big decisions that they have ahead of them, from the education that they want to complete to discovering future places of employment,” said Clark. “STEM fields are not easy to go into, so giving these students mentors this early on in their education gives them the confidence and resources they may need to continue their education and be successful four years from now when they graduate college.”
More information on the New Vision and other career and technical education offerings through CiTi can be found at CiTiboces.org/CTE..
