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JA JobSpark 2023: Inspiring the Future Workforce
On Tuesday, September 26, and Wednesday, September 27, volunteer members of IMAA participated in the 2023 JA JobSpark event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. JA JobSpark is a two-day, hands-on career expo that impacts more than 13,000 Central Indiana eighth graders.
JA JobSpark is meant to “spark” an interest in students and get them excited for their future. During the event, students learn about skills needed for jobs that will be in demand when they graduate, and they learn about the equipment that is used daily on those jobs. The goal is for students to gain a better understanding of the courses they will need to take in high school, a track for post-secondary education or training, and a clear career pathway to find what interests them. The event is a large-scale effort that includes more than 120 businesses and organizations. During the event, more than 1,000 volunteers come together to expose our youth to 200-plus hands-on experiences and opportunities to get students excited about their future.
As a means to introduce students to potential careers in the aggregate industry, IMAA operates a “Mini Remote-Controlled Quarry” experience at JobSpark in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction cluster. Volunteers at our experience showed the students how to operate remote controlled frontend loaders and haul trucks to move aggregate from the quarry to the primary crusher and the plant. Students watched the different sizes of aggregate get sorted into stockpiles, and then load out of the stockpiles to the customers.
While operating the equipment, students learned about the industry from the volunteers and asked questions about their specific jobs in the industry. The most common question we received was, “How much money do you make?” However, we also received questions such as, “What do I need to do to drive a truck like this?” … “Where did you go to school?” … “What happens to the rocks?” … “How do you get the rocks out of the ground?” … and many others.
Our participation in JobSpark would not have been possible without our fantastic volunteers. We’d like to thank the following people for volunteering their time to help out at JobSpark this year:
- Alex Cook, AMI
- Cory Collins, MacAllister Machinery
- Deana Jones, IMI
- Emily Bay, Rieth-Riley Construction Co.
- Josh Wray, Orica
- Kari Reynolds, US Aggregates
- Kevin Lewis, Orica
- Kim Grose, VCNA Prairie Aggregates
- Laura Rains, VCNA Prairie Aggregates
- Matt Ross, IMI
- Rich Beitman, IMI
- Trent Sanders, IMI
- Weston Lockwood, IMI
2023 JA JobSpark Volunteers