Dave Staroscik: Showing Students the Opportunities of STEM Trades at Reinke

Dave Staroscik: Showing Students the Opportunities of STEM Trades at Reinke

Students learn about a CNC toolroom mill.

For 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.

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 them basic CAD skills so that they can draw and draft in AutoCAD. We try to keep it fun and interesting, and we don’t get too detailed and mechanical. We encourage them to draw what they would like, so it’s something of an art project, and then we take those 2D line drawings and program them onto to the CNC mill, and the students get to machine the part out.

Irrigation Leader: In addition to providing instructors, does Reinke also supply the CNC mill and the other equipment?

Dave Staroscik: The State of Nebraska started a grant program to encourage this activity on the local level that provides a one-to-one match for money raised by a private business. That’s how the equipment got brought in. It’s up to the business, in this case Reinke, to actually write the grant and draft a proposal for how we would spend those funds. The school provided the space for the classes, but Reinke paid for half the equipment and the grant money covered the other half. That includes the CNC, robotics, and welding equipment.

Irrigation Leader: What was the motivation behind the state’s grant program?

Dave Staroscik: The governor felt that with the shortage of people available in the STEM fields, there needed to be something to encourage students to go into those fields. It has therefore become a core class for junior high students. We incorporated AutoCAD into this class. The school already had the CAD program, and we wanted to show these students how the design side is integrated with the CNC, or machining, side. The grant is intended to help expose junior high kids to this technology, and that’s what we’re doing. They’re getting a chance to realize, “Oh, I could do this,” or, “I didn’t realize this was something I could learn.” It gives students who are not sure about going to a 4-year college or who are not sure what careers are out there the chance to start thinking about it as eighth graders. Then, when they get into high school and start picking classes, they may be more inclined to take STEM classes.

Irrigation Leader: Are you finding that Reinke now has a larger pool of skilled applicants to jobs?

Dave Staroscik: That is definitely a goal. Ultimately, we would like to see some of these students take more of this type of classes as they progress through the school. The program is relatively new—we’re actually in our second year. The students who have been in the program the longest are only freshmen in high school right now. The welding program, for instance, has been in place longer, and we have seen some of those students come back and work for us. We look at these classes as a way to help feed our organization, but it isn’t just about Reinke. Sure, we want these people to come work for us if they can, but it’s also another avenue for education. Deshler is not a huge community. Our school is small, but these industrial arts and STEM programs are good resources for these students. We would like to see these students evolve and potentially be employees of ours. These classes mean that they will have skills when they walk in the door. The CNC program is in its infancy right now, and we’ll see in the next 3–5 years if any of the students come back to us. We understand that not everybody’s going to stick around and come to work for us, but if we do nothing, then nothing will happen.

The control board of the toolroom mill.

Irrigation Leader: Is there anything else you wanted to add before we wrap up?

Dave Staroscik: It’s important to note that a lot of products have started to be produced overseas. The current generation has not been exposed to these fields the way I was when I was growing up. This is a positive way to reintroduce skills to students at a young age and to create an opportunity to start filling that workforce again. We can teach manufacturing here in the United States instead of having to outsource it to other countries. Economically, it’s good overall. It keeps jobs here and provides good support to local communities.

Dave Staroscik is manufacturing engineer manager at Reinke Manufacturing.