Students in the Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates program in Benton Harbor spent the day Wednesday at the Whirlpool Corporation Benton Harbor Tech Center working with mentors.
Youth Solutions Director of Strategic Advancement Hope Roberts tells us about 40 students from Benton Harbor High School were there to learn about teamwork and planning. They were tasked with designing little cars that could roll down a ramp with an egg on board. The goal was to not break the egg.
“It really gives them real world experience with job skills, communication skills, leadership skills,” Roberts said. “Everything that they work on in their Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates program, they could put to use.”
Roberts says the Whirlpool mentors provided the students a budget and materials with which to make the cars, and the students could ask for more if they demonstrated why that was necessary.
“It gave the kids a really cool look at what real world jobs might entail, and what these Whirlpool employees go through based on whether or not this is like a job they do there at Whirlpool.”
Roberts says this is the third year Whirlpool has had a mentorship program with Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates. At the end of the day, the students who designed the egg cars that protected the eggs the longest received awards.
