Hands-on experience

Working at the Wallowa County Visitors Center in Enterprise gave Jessica Mendez of Wallowa confidence, people skills and knowledge of Wallowa County. Submitted photos

With the coordination of several funding streams, TEC was able to hire two five-person crews to work predominantly in natural resource, conservation and historically or culturally significant projects in Wallowa County. TEC was also able to place nine other students in businesses and non-profit agencies for approximately eight weeks of employment at minimum wage.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife employed two young people under the guidance of Darla Klages and Ron Harrod. Travis Starmer of Wallowa was involved in many of the operations carried out at the fish hatchery west of Enterprise.

Harrod, the hatchery manager, said efforts were made not only to have Travis participate in hatchery operations, but to learn why those procedures are carried out. The job duties included feeding fish, cleaning ponds, assisting with stocking procedures, data entry, learning about spawning and culture procedures.

Travis Starmer of Wallowa learned the hows and whys of the fish hatchery operations this summer as part of the ODFW crew.

“Travis is a quiet, reserved kid and this has really helped him, being part of our team, our family. His confidence level has improved. He is a quick learner. He just improved every day,” said Harrod. “This program is tax dollars well spent. It helps kids to think about careers and opportunities, not just in Wallowa County but throughout the state. This experience is so much more valuable than just talking about careers in wildlife management. Travis got an inside look at what happens here and learned so much more this way.”

Harrod also said he would be open to repeating the experience in the future as part of an effort to be active in the community and support educational activities for youth.

Tiffany Zollman of Lostine worked as an office assistant at the ODFW under Klages. When she started she hadn’t had much office experience, according to Klages, and as the summer progressed she learned to run a nine-line switchboard, became familiar with Microsoft Excel and provided customer service on the phone and over the counter at the ODFW offices. Her duties were not confined to the clerical side. She also checked fish screens, cleaned screens, learned about fish passage in relation to irrigation and farming practices.

“Office skills, using spreadsheets, record keeping, report generation — these skills will all contribute to her career,” said Klages.

Wendy Stewart, right, owner of Bee Charmed Marketplace in Enterprise, appreciated Amber Wilks’ eagerness and positive attitude.

“I enjoyed working as part of the team and learning about ODFW and how important their work is,” she said.

Travis Beck of Enterprise worked as an intern for the tech center at the Wallowa County Education Service District under the direction of Josh Kesecker.

“This employment program gave me the extra hands to complete ongoing tasks so I could devote some time to projects I wouldn’t have been able to complete otherwise,” said Kesecker.

Travis worked half time through the summer, and because he had spent time completing a proficiency credit with the tech staff at ESD during his junior year at Enterprise High School, was well into the learning curve when he began this summer. A proficiency credit is an opportunity provided by Enterprise High School for students to design an elective class for themselves with the purpose of pursuing an area of particular interest. They typically work with the guidance of someone in the community who has expertise in that field and are granted high school credit for the experience.

“I can show him how — walk him through a process, and then turn him loose. I can come back and check on him periodically and he is doing fine. I can direct him to build a server that performs a certain task, he researches it to figure it out. If he runs into a problem, I help him discover on his own where the problem is and he works through it on his own,” Kesecker said.

Travis Beck of Enterprise knows how these computers work “under the hood.’’ He was a valuable employee for Wallowa County ESD preparing computers for the county schools’ first day of classes in the fall.

“I have interviewed people for entry-level technician positions with less skills than he has now,’’ Kesecker said. “He knows how it all works ‘under the hood’. He knows how the computers are talking to each other. He knows more than most people who are self-taught and can do some networking but don’t know how it all works.”

Jessica Mendez of Wallowa worked with Nancy Carlsen at the Wallowa County Visitors Center. Carlsen said Jessica was a reserved, somewhat shy young woman who became more outgoing as the summer progressed. Her duties included answering the telephone, answering questions, copying handouts, assisting Diane Knox to gather samples of wildflowers and display them. She recorded specimens that were gathered and did research that added to her knowledge of the wilderness area of the county.

She was able to accompany staff on hikes into the wilderness to gain first-hand knowledge of the trails she was asked about by visitors to the area.

“The main goal of the visitors center is to help people enjoy the wilderness but also to participate in community events, which Jessica did,’’ Nancy said. “She is a very personable young lady and she improved her people skills with this experience. It is more work for the staff to train a student, but she worked so well with the others. It was a good experience for both of us.”

“I learned so much, I really enjoyed my job,” said Jessica.

Amy Johnson, director of Building Healthy Families in Enterprise, was particularly impressed with how well the talents and skills of Tyler Soares of Wallowa matched her agency’s needs for the summer. Tyler quickly learned to develop, construct and present projects for children participating in the summer lunch program. He answered phones, manned the front desk when needed and learned administrative duties.

“We had not thought of using a young person to present the craft projects with the kids in the lunch program before. The children loved working with Tyler, it was really successful, young person to young person. Even though he was older than the children, they connected with him better than with an adult,” Johnson said.

He became familiar with the agency’s programs and resources and was able to assist in making them available when needed. As part of the support Building Healthy Families offers to projects that provide educational opportunities and contribute to cultural diversity in the county, Tyler worked with Gwen Trice of the Maxville Interpretive Center. He is interested in a career in filmmaking and she needed an assistant videographer at the first Maxville Gathering held at Maxville Aug. 8. Tyler was able to learn video techniques from Trice and spent much of his own time out at the film site to become familiar with the area before the event, Johnson said.

Stephanie Gross of Joseph is planning a career in culinary arts and got a taste of what high production in a commercial kitchen includes in her job as an assistant cook with the summer lunch program sponsored by Community Connection of Wallowa County. Stephanie worked with Betty Settergren, head cook for the lunch program.

“We are making about 120 meals a day. The need for Stephanie’s help is huge. Training her was not more work, it was rewarding and fun,’’ Settergren said.

“She had worked at R&R Drive-In but this was her first experience in a commercial kitchen. Everything was hands-on. She learned time management, efficiency. We used a production line assembly process to get the meals made, packaged and ready for transport to the lunch sites.

“I was very happy with the job she did. Last year I did this program alone; having an assistant made a big difference this year and I hope to do this again next year.”

Arielle Marcum of Enterprise worked in the TEC office as a clerical assistant. She learned to answer multi-line phones and polished her customer service and clerical skills. The extra work she did freed up TEC staff to work one on one with customers if needed in the computer lab and allowed for tutoring for GED preparation.

Participants in the summer employment program were also placed with private businesses. Amber Wilks of Enterprise worked for Wendy Stewart in her gift shop, Bee Charmed Marketplace. Amber’s duties included checking invoices, stocking shelves, pricing merchandise, ringing up sales, cleaning, greeting and waiting on customers.

“At first Amber was very shy with customers and found it very hard to talk to people. Eventually she gained enough confidence to speak to people, greet them, she smiled at people. Her verbal skills improved so much,” said Stewart. Amber’s responsibilities included many tasks she had never done before like making bank deposits and filing receipts.

“She was able to take the initiative and stay busy without my telling her what to do next. She was so willing to do anything, she was on time every day. I’m sorry it’s ended, I will miss her,” Stewart said.

“I loved working there and I loved working with Wendy. I’m going to miss it,” Amber said.

Eastern Oregon Nursery and Landscaping took on Michael Baty of Joseph as a student employee. Irene Bates said it was a good experience for them and for Michael.

“We wanted him to go away having learned something whether he needed these skills in his career choice or not,” Bates said.

Skills the nursery staff worked on with Michael included planning and organizing before starting a job to save return trips to look for tools or equipment. They tried to explain why certain procedures were done with the plants, not just require he complete them. One frustration was that they didn’t have more time to spend on training, Bates said.

“This was our taxes at work, right? We would definitely participate in this program again,” she said.

Michael said even though this was not his first choice of jobs, he learned a lot about plants and it ended up working out fine.

Brent Wydrinski of Enterprise was the crew leader of one of the five-person crews. His work group members were Beau Bradley, Collie Davidson, Audrey Harshman, Nathan Leggett and Cheyenne Sievers.

“We’ve done some great projects. It was hard work. Good kids doing totally worthwhile projects,” Brent said.

Their accomplishments included fencing the parking lot and installing ADA-approved trail at Iwetemlaykin Park that is scheduled to open officially in September, cutting hiking trails at the Johnson Timber Wayside near Minam, collecting native grass seed species and building three low-impact trails on the Zumwalt Prairie for the Nature Conservancy. They also helped Tim Nitz of the National Parks return the tepee poles used during Chief Joseph Days to storage. In the process they learned how to set up a tepee.

At Wallowa Lake State Park the crew completed trail maintenance, built walkways, improved the restroom and shower areas, and laid wood chips around some of the trees. They helped with the fish salvage phase of the Wallowa River redirection project sponsored by the Grande Ronde Watershed.

Alex Courtney, Conner Evans, Kyrie Weaver, Hunter Harvey and Bailee Reimer made up the second crew, which was led by Dawn Hassett.

“We started out with hard physical work and that was good because each day seemed to get easier as we continued through the summer,” Dawn said.

Some of their projects included control of knapweed at Cow Creek on the Imnaha River, helping with fish salvage on the redirection of the Wallowa River on the Nichols property, maintenance on the Forest Service cabin at Kirkland Butte and improving the Wagon Road Trail for biking and Nordic skiing.

They also dismantled the old buck and pole fence and installed a new one at Turkey Flat in the Lostine Canyon and repainted the Lostine Guard Station and garage.

“The kids learned how important it is to be on time and to show up every day, that safety is essential and how to take care of their tools. They learned how to respond to supervision, follow directions — it’s all about work ethics,” said Dawn.