“I graduated on a Friday, and on Monday, I was at Howmet, working full-time.”

Last year, Evan Beavers was a senior in Electronics at Wolcott Tech, trying to decide on his career path.  This year, he is a full-time Electronics Technician, employed by the Howmet Castings company, an Alcoa Aluminum business, located in Winsted.  I had previously known Evan as a student. We met again at this year’s Technology Fair, hosted by Wolcott Tech on October 30th.  Evan, along with a crew of four more employees, was manning the Howmet table for students attending the Fair.  Since Evan had spent his previous four years here at Wolcott, he felt right at home.  The Howmet table saw a steady stream of students for most of the day and most of us at the fair were kept pretty busy. 

  ( Left - Evan Beavers surrounded by fast-moving students at the Tech Fair)

As a Junior at Wolcott Tech, Evan was part of my Co-operative Work Experience electronics crew.  I took Evan and John Alexson, another electronics student, along with me on my site visits.  I would interview the student workers and their supervisiors.  Evan and John would take digital photos and video of the workplace.  The boys were a great help and would process the material for me so that I could use it to promote WBL.  Even then I could tell that Evan had a knack for electronics technology.  As a senior, Evan considered working at Howmet in the WBL program, but decided against it.  He explained that he wanted to spend as much time in the shop as he could, and his participation in the WBL program would make that difficult.  He decided to work part-time at Howmet, but did it after school.  “Electronics is a difficult field,” he explained. “I chose the shop because I was very interested in it, but didn’t know a lot about it.  Mr.(Al) Valetta (Electronics Department Head) taught us a lot of the theory we needed.”

Evan began his part-time job in January of ’07.  He worked that job until his High School graduation in June.  “I graduated on a Friday, and on Monday, I was at Howmet working full-time.” 

His job title is Electronic Technician and he works from 6:30 AM to 3 PM.  He is a troubleshooter, one of a team of six.  He does general service and maintenance to the many machines on the factory floor.  “We try to do preventive maintenance on all the machines.  We have a regular schedule, but need to be available for breakdowns and to fix minor problems before they become million dollar major problems.  As electronics guys, we try to narrow the problem down to a board, then go from there.  Sometimes, there are no parts being made anymore for a particular machine.  We either have to go find one or improvise a solution ourselves.  It’s pretty interesting.”

(Right - Evan at his desk in the Howmet Electronics Department)

Paul Peck, a veteran of 17 years with the company, is Evan’s immediate supervisor.  Paul indicated Evan was working well, doing a good job, and learning as fast as he could.  “The only way to get him experience is to keep putting him on new jobs,” said Mr. Peck. 

As the youngest employee in the shop, I wondered how Evan was dealing with the age difference.  “They teach me stuff every day”, he responded.  “It’s neat being with the older guys ‘cause they know so much that I can learn.  There is really no difference between the older guys and the younger guys.  They treat me the same.”

His immediate goals are to stay at Howmet for a long time.  He is still working out the long term goals.  “I’ve thought about going back to school, but I’m not sure yet.”

“Evan is the kind of kid who best exemplifies what we do in Technical Education,” observed Electronics Department Head, Al Valetta. “He had excellent hands-on skills in shop.  He was very good at projects, and if we did anything as a group, Evan was at the forefront in organizing it.”

Mr. Valetta went on to predict that Evan would do very well at Howmet.  “He had a full grasp of the theory from our shop and was ready to go when he graduated.”

Jerry Gryguc

Dean of Students

November 2007