More than a decade ago, a Pickaway-Ross student in Brent Ebert’s Machining & Manufacturing program started working at TOSOH the day after he graduated high school. Today, Keith Legg is a supervisor at the Grove City plant.
Keith Legg’s performance at TOSOH created a job-placement partnership that continues today.
In the spring, 2014 alum Nate Wilson returned to Brent’s lab with TOSOH co-workers Laura Chuma and Jeremy Messer.
Nate started at TOSOH as a manufacturing support operator right after he finished high school. Today, he is third-shift manufacturing supervisor.
Nate and his co-workers talked to Brent’s students about the benefits of working at TOSOH.
Laura, who works in human resources, said the company employs a half-dozen Pickaway-Ross alumni. She said when meeting job candidates, she looks first at character and a person’s willingness to work.
Jeremy said that is where career-technical schools come in to play and that Pickaway-Ross prepares students for the job.
“I like the machine shop you have and teaching kids how to use manual machines first is fundamental and key to developing quality machinists.”
Nate credits Brent’s involvement as a teacher that helped him get where he is today. Before coming to Pickaway-Ross, Nate had missed a lot of school because he had to go to work, saying at the time that he felt he needed money more than grades.
“Pickaway-Ross taught me how to be a grown up and it was a work environment I needed. I didn’t have a dad around (and Ebert) took being a mentor to a whole new level by guiding me to be successful.
“As much as I hated it, he taught me how to grow up and show up to school and treat it like a job.”
Nine years later, Nate told the students, he is going to college and the company provides tuition reimbursement.
While employees don’t need a degree to work at TOSOH, Nate said, “The more you know, the more valuable you are to the company.”