School-to-work programs are among the resources and efforts that have rapidly increased the education attainment level locally, and have afforded two local women professional career opportunities.
Sarah O’Conner, 29, and Aubree Hilderbrand, 28, both landed jobs with Cummins Inc. after participating in school-to-work programs with the company.
Interests align
O’Conner moved to Columbus in 2012 after her wife, Jasmine, completed college and got a marketing job with Cummins.
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Sarah O’Conner transferred from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to IUPUC to finish her bachelor’s degree in communications.
In 2014, she started a school-to-work program with Cummins, which involved her going to school full-time and working as a paid intern at Cummins 19 hours per week.
She first worked with the service and parts group, but later moved to the branding group, where she worked on marketing and social media projects for potential new talent for Cummins, specifically supporting U.S. recruiting.
“That lined up with my communications major and business minor,” O’Conner said.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in May 2017 and started full-time two months later. O’Conner’s role is a marketing communications specialist.
The school-to-work program was a great experience, O’Conner said.
“It better helped me better understand what the marketing field looked like. It allowed me the opportunity to network with those inside the business and potentially work there full-time,” she said.
Education was something O’Conner’s mother, a teacher, always emphasized, she said.
O’Conner said she’ll likely pursuing a master of business administration degree at some point.
“I hope it affords me more career opportunities,” she said.
Foot in door
Hilderbrand, a 2009 Columbus North High School graduate, started a school-to-work program in drafting with Cummins the same year after starting at Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
She first studied drafting in high school as a junior and senior in the C4 program.
After starting at Purdue Polytechnic, Hilderbrand learned that Cummins was hiring for a school-to-work drafting program. She said her C4 experience and learning the drafting software program that Cummins uses, while at Purdue Polytechnic, probably helped her land the internship.
Hilderbrand participated in the program from September 2009 to December 2010, studying as a full-time student and working at Cummins 19 hours weekly. She worked with a drafting group, learning how the company’s professional drafters do their jobs.
That experience helped Hilderbrand land a full-time job with Cummins in January 2011, even before she had completed a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering technology. Hilderbrand has been taking two classes per semester since starting full-time at Cummins, and is scheduled to earn her degree in May.
Hilderbrand worked for Cummins in drafting until October 2017, and since then has worked as a cross-functional engineering associate helping the company’s fuel systems business with fuel pump development.
She said the school-to-work program was a great opportunity.
“It’s 100 percent a way for people to get their foot in the door. I push it with younger students in college. I push it every chance I get,” said Hilderband, who noted that she was raised by parents who stressed the importance of education.
She’s also grateful that Cummins has paid for her schooling so she could finish her degree.
“I couldn’t be more thankful,” she said.
