JCIDC’s 40th anniversary celebration event was Oct. 29 at The Copper Top in downtown Seymour.
The event featured social hour, dinner by First Class Catering and a program featuring keynote speaker Mark Emkes, a Seymour native and former CEO of Bridgestone Americas.
Also during the program, JCIDC’s only executive director in its 40-year existence, Jim Plump, was presented the Distinguished Hoosier Award by District 44 Sen. Eric Koch on behalf of Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Plump and JCIDC board President Kevin Gabbard also spoke.
Plus, the inaugural class receiving the JCIDC Lifetime Achievement Award was recognized. They are Mike Tormoehlen, Carl Shake and Gerald Armstrong.
Tormoehlen also was presented the Elmore-Kilgas Award.
Finally, a donation was made to the Seymour High School Class of 1971 Scholarship Fund. Emkes was a member of that class.
Thanks to all who attended the event, and thanks to anyone who has contributed in some way to JCIDC’s 40 years.
The event sponsors were Duke Energy, First Financial Bank, Goecker Construction Inc., Jackson County Visitor Center, JCBank, Kocolene Development Corp., Old National Bank, Royalty Companies, Schneck Medical Center, SIHO and Vincennes University.
The annual senior mock interviews began Oct. 28 at Seymour High School.
Forty-three seniors participated in interviews with local business professionals. Career interests included military, child care, construction, cosmetology, journalism, photography, manufacturing, event planner, social studies, law enforcement and chef.
JCIDC would like to thank Marc Collins with the U.S. Army, Kelly Doerflein with Child Care Network, Arin Hupp with Goecker Construction Inc., Sarah Luedeman with Exist Salon & Spa, Erika Malone with The Tribune, Aimee England with Excel Manufacturing Inc., Brittany Snowden with Ivory & Lace Weddings, Bonnye Good, Stephen Wheeles with the Indiana State Police and Amy Schleter with Crothersville Community Schools for taking time out of their schedules to interview these seniors.
We also want to thank Seymour High School officials for helping coordinate the effort.
“I’m just a girl who is breaking barriers. Try and keep up.”
That message was on stickers that were part of a swag table at the inaugural Jackson County Girl Powered Workshop on Oct. 23 at Seymour Middle School.
The 31 girls in grades 7 to 12 from eight county schools attending the event serve as proof that robotics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) aren’t just for boys.
According to the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, Girl Powered Workshops engage and inform young women about STEM and robotics opportunities available to them.
Any time in October, teachers, coaches, event partners and mentors are invited to host a Girl Powered Workshop to honor International Day of the Girl.
Amy Jo Miller Kuzel, who coaches the robotics teams at Seymour Middle School and Seymour High School, said she found out about the opportunity from an email.
“Every year, I’ve been like, ‘I want a girl-powered team,’ and (the girls on the robotics teams) are like, ‘I know,’” she said, smiling. “Then finally this year, that’s when all of the high-schoolers were like, ‘Let’s band together.’”
The workshop was a perfect opportunity to do just that.
“I saw an email and I was like, ‘Hmm, what’s this girls workshop email all about?’” she said. “I asked about it, and it seemed like it was just get together, it could be anything you want, it didn’t cost anything. You just need a host to host it.”
Miller Kuzel created a flyer and emailed it to local robotics coaches and Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.
From there, it went out to local companies in hopes that female engineers could attend.
In the end, she wound up with girls to attend and also female engineers and others from local industries, including Cummins Seymour Engine Plant, Walmart Distribution Center and BSM Groups.
Plus, Walmart donated supplies, Jamie and Michael Baker bought pizzas and stickers and VEX Robotics and Optimus donated swag.
“The community support was so warming and engaging,” Miller Kuzel said. “They were just like, ‘We want to help.’ This is just so cool. It makes it easy. I was thinking, ‘Oh, (the girls) will watch a movie, they’ll sit around and talk.’ OK then I was like, ‘But we’ve got to have activities.’ It’s just perfect.”
After all of the girls arrived, Miller Kuzel had them find others their age they didn’t know and form groups to rotate between four stations.
At one, they made a rubber band catapult to practice launching and resistance with rubber bands.
At another one, the goal was to improve on a poor design of a rubber band car.
“They have to build that and maybe redesign, and there’s not all the parts, so they have to figure out how to replace when you don’t have something,” Miller Kuzel said.
The raspberry pi station involved building a miniature computer on a circuit board, and the binary bracelets station had them using different colored beads to do binary code with their name.
One purpose of forming groups was to practice the interview process, Miller Kuzel said.
“I want them to actually be comfortable talking to and interviewing the adults,” she said. “That was the big thing, career pathways, seeing what their careers are.”
Another purpose was to recognize other girls so they can work together with them at robotics competitions.
“They are going to look better to the judges by knowing each other and being able to pal around with them,” Miller Kuzel said.
Who knows? They could wind up as an alliance at a competition.
“A girl-powered alliance,” Miller Kuzel said, smiling.
Each station was manned by employees of Cummins, BSM Groups and Walmart.
Lauren Ferrenburg, a machining engineer at the Seymour Engine Plant, helped at the raspberry pi station. The Columbus native has worked for the diesel engine maker for three and a half years.
She said she was drawn to engineering because the possibilities are endless.
“There’s always room for improvement. There’s always room for innovation, lots of collaboration,” she said. “It’s really been great to be able to see your work come to fruition.”
She works in the machining center on the high horsepower block line of the worldwide company’s largest engine, the 95-liter QSK95, known as Hedgehog.
“It is amazing,” she said.
As a female engineer, she was happy to be invited to the workshop just for girls.
“Whenever I was in high school, I was one of very few girls that were in engineering, and so I really wanted to give back and be able to help our future women engineers,” Ferrenburg said. “Stuff like this just makes me very happy because I get to see in a way my former self as my now self, knowing and seeing that this is our future of our next wave of women engineers.”
She was impressed with the turnout.
“That is so invigorating to me,” Ferrenburg said. “Even when I was in college at the University of Louisville pursuing my BSME (Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering), I was one of maybe five women in my 25-person class, so it makes me so happy to see further equity for women in this field.”
SMS seventh-graders Bella Stair and Mackenzie Sellers were among the workshop’s attendees.
Bella started robotics at a young age, while Mackenzie has done it for two years.
“I’m on the robotics team, and I’ve been doing robotics since I was really little,” Bella said. “I got my first robotics kit whenever I was 5, and I loved doing it. I always liked math, and then for Christmas, my parents got me a little robotics kit, and I fell in love with it and I signed up to be in robotics camps.”
Mackenzie said she was drawn to robotics because she likes to build.
“I was good friends with the coach, and the coach was like, ‘Hey, how about you try this out?’” she said. “I was friends with his daughter, too, so I went and I tried out last year, and he said, ‘So now, you use your sassiness and your bossiness and you’re a good team leader.’ I was the first one last year to get my robot moving.”
Both girls liked having an opportunity to gather with other girls with a common interest.
“A bunch of girls can get together, and you don’t have to know them yet. You can get to know them, and you can make new friends,” Bella said.
“It gets more girls interested in it,” Mackenzie said. “I know I’m not alone.”
Miller Kuzel summed up the reception for the first year of a Girl Powered Workshop locally.
Nearly 200 students and 15 chaperones from the six county high schools — Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Medora, Sandy Creek, Seymour and Trinity Lutheran — gathered at Cummins Seymour Engine Plant for a welcome from Plant Manager Darren Kimmel and Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson.
After watching a safety video, the students, divided into four groups, rotated between workshops. Those were Life on a Budget with Brian Terrell from Aisin USA Mfg. Inc.; Communication is Key with Leanne Powell, Allie Hurr and Kellie Marshall from Lannett Co. Inc.; Jackson County Grads with Rachael Hunter from Cummins, Dana Perry from Aisin USA, Gene Ivey from Pet Supplies Plus and Dalton Jackson, Steven Kidd and Leslie Bean from Valeo; and Career Development with Tina Hacker and Yesenia Otero from Pet Supplies Plus.
Then in the afternoon, the students and chaperones visited one of the five participating industries for lunch, a tour and a hands-on activity.
JCIDC organized the event with the help of Cummins SEP, Aisin USA, Lannett, Valeo and Pet Supplies Plus and the six schools.
Celebrated annually on the first Friday in October with events continuing throughout the month and beyond, MFG Day is a national grassroots movement that demonstrates the reality and future of modern manufacturing careers. Thousands of companies and educational institutions nationwide are invited to open their doors to students, parents, educators and community leaders.
The Manufacturing Institute initiative empowers manufacturers to come together and address their collective challenges and build excitement about manufacturing careers to help their communities and future generations thrive.
The inaugural Manufacturing Day in Jackson County was in 2019. Nearly 130 Seymour High School students participated in the event organized by JCIDC that was designed to introduce young people in the community to the manufacturing sector and career opportunities and demonstrate the contributions manufacturing makes to the local economy. Since that first year in Jackson County, the event has expanded to include the other county high schools.
Manufacturing Day, now known as MFG Day, has been observed nationally since 2012 to inspire the next generation of manufacturers.
Students from Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Medora and Seymour high schools are presenting their business ideas in the initial stages of Maverick Challenge Jackson County.
The Maverick Challenge is a high school entrepreneur program aimed at empowering and challenging students to unleash their entrepreneurial potential by developing innovative, creative, resourceful and sustainable business ideas.
The program is a partnership between the JCIDC Workforce Partnership, Jackson County Chamber, Seymour Main Street and Brownstown Ewing Main Street. The idea is to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to generate unique and comprehensive business solutions by providing resources, mentorships and community support.
On Sept. 24, Doug Prather, Jaylyn Stam, Philip Roggow and Dan Robison took time out of their day to hear Seymour High School students’ business ideas. On Sept. 25 and 26, other local business professionals will visit the other three schools to meet with students.
The business idea rubrics filled out by the business professionals will be given to the teachers leading the program at each of the schools to share with the students.
In October and November, the students will do classroom work on lean canvas, slide deck and video. Also in October, they will hear from classroom speakers and work on their presentation and video. Also in November, there will be more classroom speakers, the students will work on financials and marketing and they can attend a SPARK/Maverick Challenge Jackson County Combine.
From November to January, after teachers have identified the teams that want to continue with the competition, they will be paired with mentors. Students will be required to meet with their mentors at least three times and will be responsible for ongoing communication with them.
Once the submissions are reviewed in February, the 10 finalists will be announced. They will participate in the oral competition March 5.
On the morning of Sept. 18, Seymour High School seniors participated in senior seminars with faculty from Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus.
Groups of seniors attended three sessions: Professional communication and professionalism, interview preparation and the game of life. It ended in the auditorium with seniors hearing from three SHS graduates who are current Ivy Tech students studying a variety of areas, including nursing, mechanical engineering and business. Upon exiting the auditorium, the students received Ivy Tech swag. They also are now eligible to win a $1,000 scholarship from Ivy Tech.
On Sept. 19, different groups of seniors will rotate between the sessions.
In August, all of the seniors had sessions on career awareness and finding purpose, what employers want by industry and résumé and LinkedIn.
After completing the senior seminars, the seniors will be ready to create their résumé in English class that they will submit for when they participate in the annual senior mock interviews the week of Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
JCIDC partners with SHS for the senior mock interviews, helping pair each student with an interviewer who works in the field in which they are interested.
