Dave Staroscik: Showing Students the Opportunities of STEM Trades at Reinke
Students learn about a CNC toolroom mill.
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or decades, manufacturing was the economic backbone of many parts of the United States, but many young people today are not aware of the opportunities that await them in the manufacturing trades. Reinke Manufacturing is working with local schools in Nebraska to change that by sending employees like Dave Staroscik to teach classes in computer numerical control (CNC) machining and AutoCAD to junior and senior high school students. In this interview, Mr. Staroscik tells Irrigation Leader how the program got started and how it benefits students as well as the local company. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
22 | IRRIGATION LEADER | July/August 2021
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF REINKE MANUFACTURING.
Dave Staroscik: I started out as a tool and die maker with an education from a local trade school in Nebraska. I worked for another employer on the tool and die side for about 10 years and was then promoted to manufacturing engineer. I was with that company for approximately 20 years before coming to Reinke. At Reinke, I started out supporting manufacturing in general and then kept growing with the company. I was eventually promoted to manufacturing engineer manager. Our design engineers create the product that the customers want, and then manufacturing engineers figure out how to manufacture the product. Throughout my career, I’ve had opportunities to be involved with community activities. Recently, Reinke has been cooperating with Deshler Public Schools to support education in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
trades. We were able to secure some money from a State of Nebraska grant program to purchase equipment, including CNC, robotics, and welding equipment, for the school to use. I am familiar with CNC equipment, vertical milling machines, and CNC lathes, even though I wasn’t doing CNC machining when I was a machinist. Russ Reinke approached me and another employee here, Sabrina, and asked if we would like to help teach students at the school about the CNC equipment. We’re now in our second year of instruction. Sabrina and I work with eighth graders in a one-quarter class designed to expose them to this type of machinery and operations. During the active school year, I go out to the school every day for about an hour and a half. The class is about 45 minutes long. Sometimes, I do a bit of machine work before and after class. I enjoy doing that. It’s nice that Reinke, and Russ Reinke, my boss, is allowing Sabrina and me to take that time out of our day to be there. Reinke is sending us out there on its time. Our work with the students exposes them to our field and that helps the school out too, because industrial arts teachers aren’t always readily available. The motivation behind the grant program is to expose more kids to the STEM trades and make them aware of jobs in these fields. Four-year college is not for everybody, and the education for STEM trade jobs can happen in junior college or technical college. We give the students a crash course in 2D line drawing using the program AutoCAD. They’ve never been around computer-aided design (CAD) software, but kids that age are adaptive to computers and are quick learners. We teach
