GALION – The 6th annual Connections Weekend continued on Friday morning with Galion High School Career Day.
First, students were introduced to 18 GHS graduates and their chosen professions. During lunch break, students were encouraged to speak with graduates at tables set up in the gymnasium and ask questions about the fields of work in which they were interested.
“This is my fourth year,” said Nikki Workman, 1991 GHS graduate and organizer of Career Day. “This is a phenomenal opportunity for these students – to see GHS graduates succeeding – to hear their insight and get exposure from these career professionals.”
Workman works as a public relations director of Marion Technical College and wished she had been able to attend career days like these. She did, however, speak with her OSU counselor and shadowed her brother at Shilling Graphics which she said was helpful.
“This group is awesome,” Workman said of the speakers. “It’s an awesome opportunity for alumni to reconnect and share their experiences.”
Christy Linton, GHS class of 1996, is a funeral director for Mark A. Schneider Funeral Home in Galion. She is one of the few female funeral directors in the area and said that she gets lots of questions from “Doesn’t that make you sad?” to “How can you do that?” Linton admits that the first inkling of her future job was the fact that she loved anatomy and dissection.
As students gathered at her table, she explained how blood is drawn from the body before the body is washed and dressed. Cosmetics are applied; the body is placed in the casket and prepared for viewing for the family. She stressed that each body is treated with respect as if they were part their own family. The funeral process takes about three days.
As a director she “directs” the family through the process, Linton said. Her schooling at Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science taught her the grief process and how to deal with it, accounting, anatomy, pathology and even a class on music. She and her classmates were taken through mock funerals as well as having the given opportunity to work at a funeral home during her schooling. After passing state boards and national boards, she moved back to Galion and began her apprenticeship with Schneider.
Besides preparing the body, her job includes directing everyone and everything involved in a funeral including the drive to the cemetery and saying good-bye. “It’s a very rewarding job,” said Linton, but quickly added that the hours are sometimes terrible. She is on call 24-7-365 and has gotten called out of Christmas dinners and in the middle of the night.
“The families give me more than I give them,” Linton said. “I get to pray with them. They send me cards that say ‘We couldn’t have done this without you.’”
Matt Smith, 1972 GHS graduate, lives and works in the area and is deeply involved in the community, specifically the industry and science of renewable energy.
He is an entrepreneur, manages multiple companies including VicNRG, LLC, Galion LLC and the family farm in Morrow County. He grew up in the family business, Galion AMCO, and still works with the company, now called Galion LLC. He started VicNRG, LLC, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and deals in distribution, bio diesel, rails cars, and creating methods of cleaning diesel exhaust (much like a catalytic converter). The family farm is a working farm and many of his ideas are hatched and tested there.
For anyone wishing to learn more about renewable energy, Smith suggests going on the Green Energy Ohio Tour Oct. 3-5 to see what’s already being done in the state. “They can go to any site and look at what they are doing there,” he said. “It’s national.”
Smith displayed a new model of a small wind turbine designed in Canada and built in China with a unique six-blade design and rare earth magnets. He challenged the students coming to his table to piece it together. To be an entrepreneur, Smith said rule number one is to “show up every day. You have to have heart and courage. You are working for yourself. There are no guaranteed pay checks. First you generate ideas and then think ‘what’s the next thing?’”
Smith added that an entrepreneur has to figure out how to work within certain boundaries of government regulations.
Two of the 18 speakers submitted videos: Rob Monnett (mechanical engineer in Auburn Hills, Michigan) and Mark Stepro (drummer in a travelling rock band playing for the US State Department overseas). The other speakers for the day were Nicole Guins (flight attendant), Mike Lyons (Air Force), Shawna Layland (sales and marketing), Sara Donnersbach (attorney), Melissa Jordan (electrical engineer), Wade Cramer (chef and director of food services), Ashle Finley (staffing and recruiting), Chris Heydinger (sergeant with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office), Mallory Wiggins (public relations for Bath and Body works), Casey McDonald (Scotts Lawn Care), Kara Kuns Sovacool (social work at Mansfield Correctional Institution), Keith Evans (registered nurse), Jon Rodriguez (Aflac and consultant), and Vic Cooly (NASA).
For more information on Career Day or any of the other activities surrounding Galion Connections Weekend call 419-468-6500 or 419-468-3432 or go to http://www.galionalumni.com/
