Shape’s FuturePrep’D Students Take Home Scholarships

After 14 weeks of deep problem solving, students from Grand Haven and Spring Lake High School presented their findings at the annual FuturePrep’d Academy final event.

In January, 11 students came to Shape to learn more about what we do, the manufacturing industry, and career opportunities that fit their interests. Throughout the 16 weeks, students met with their Shape mentors to discuss a chosen problem and possible solutions.
“It was fun working with the high school kids,” said Amy King, engineering technician – process. “I enjoyed sharing with them what we do at Shape, and helping them develop solutions to the problem they were trying to resolve.”

Students Isabella and Natalie from Grand Haven focused their deep dive on Julie Davidson, talent acquisition manager, to investigate more about her career. When interviewing her they found that there was a need for testing potential associate’s skills during interviews. Through external and internal research they came up with their solution: implementing a dexterity test, problem solving questionnaire, tool recognition exercise and a standardized work test using Legos.

Students from Coopersville high school, Ally and Grace, were interested in helping Justin Mileskiewicz, test engineer manager, train his team on how to use a new piece of equipment, Intron 3385H (or known as the DIC Imaging Machine). They found that training associates on this machine can (and does) take a lot of time, so they wanted to find a solution to make training more efficient. Ally and Grace created a step by step video and a pamphlet with written instructions to go along with it.

Other students from Grand Haven and Spring Lake chose other mentors from Brilliance Audio and JR Automation Technologies to interview. One of those teams mentored by Shape associates, Michelle, Emily and Trevor, created the most innovative and feasible solutions for Brilliance Audio, and each won a $500 scholarship from FuturePrep’D!

Shape mentors:
Patty Weed, account financial manager
Sarah Schaible, corporate communications specialist
Toni Sayers, plant quality mananger
Brad Butler, machine repair I
Ron Charles, program manager II
Amy King, engineering technician – process
Jay Blanchard, continous improvement manager
Kelsey Juergens, coporate communications coordinator
Justin Mileskiewciz, test engineer manager
Dave Garwood, roll form expert
Ed Szymanski, manufacturing engineer
Eric Dudek, manufacturing engineer

Thanks to all of the associates who took time to mentor these students and work through their solutions!