Celebrating the ‘graduation’ of this year’s apprenticeship class in a program that Crown Equipment has pioneered with Lenoir County Public Schools are, from left, Superintendent Brent Williams, Associate Superintendent Frances Herring, Crown HR Director Rose Mary Jones, apprenticeship graduate Noah Stroud, Kinston Crown Plant Manager Rob Burgin, apprenticeship graduate Zaire Garner, Associate Superintendent Nicholas Harvey II, apprenticeship graduate Eduardo Hernandez-Martinez, Dawn Kantz of Lenoir Community College and Amy Jones, LCP’S director of high school education and CTE.

Before walking across the stage at South Lenoir High School to accept their diplomas, Noah Stroud and Eduardo Martinez already had the offer of a high-paying job in hand, their reward for successfully completing a year-long apprenticeship program that connects Lenoir County Public Schools with one of the region’s leading manufacturers, Crown Equipment.

At a June 6 ceremony attended by Crown officials and LCPS administrators, days ahead of their South Lenoir graduation, Noah and Eduardo were formally offered jobs as welders at Crown’s Kinston facility. A third South Lenoir senior, Zaire Gardner, also completed the program and – powered by a full-ride Goodnight Scholarship -- will take his experience as an apprentice machinist to N.C. State University in pursuit of an engineering career.

The trio comprises the third class of Crown apprentices. Of the eight student apprentices that preceded them, six continue to work at Crown, according to plant manager Rob Burgin.

“We’ve seen a phenomenal success rate,” Burgin said. “These young people have come into our program and there’s been high praise for all of them. They’ve been a staple of our work force. They are hard workers, good young men who seem to have great value sets and are a joy to work with.”

The latest set of “graduates” fits that mold, Rose Mary Jones, Crown human resources director, said.

“They’ve done a fantastic job. The full-time employees have nothing negative to say about them. Every time you hear their names, it’s all about praise. They’ve actually accomplished their art,” she said.

Just because Noah and Eduardo have finished high school, doesn’t mean they’re finished with school. As part of the apprenticeship program, they can continue – tuition free – to hone their skills as students at Lenoir Community College with the goal of earning an associate degree in their trade and journeyman certification.

“We want to be able to give them full-time employment, but we also want them to continue their education,” Burgin said. “We want to make sure we’re not missing that next step. You’ve completed high school, you gotten through the apprenticeship program here, you have a full-time job at Crown, but the bigger portion of this is that you can continue on with your education and further your career that way as well.”

Crown has already identified the four students who, beginning this summer, will make up the next apprenticeship class. They were chosen from eight rising seniors who applied. The remaining four will be offered summer employment with Crown. Zaire Gardner also plans to work the summer at Crown before going to N.C. State.

“They’re getting ahead of the game before they ever graduate and they are prepared to take on a full-time job in a skilled position,” Amy Jones, LCPS’s director of high school education and CTE, said of the apprentices.

Crown pioneered the program with LCPS in 2019 and, after Covid paused it in 2021, the two partners picked up where they left off – to the benefit not only of students but also to the scope of the school district’s CTE (Career and Technical Education) program, designed to help students identify potential careers and to develop job skills.

“One of the best parts has been working with one of our local industries and having a partnership that allows us to take our work-based learning and move it from job shadowing, field trips, those sorts of things and really immersing students in the workplace,” Amy Jones said.

“We provide a foundational basis for the students but these type of experiences are what allow them to really become a valuable employee. It gives students a skill set that they’ll have forever. No one can take from them what they’ve learned at Crown.”

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