One summer in the mid-鈥�90s, 黑料正能量 embarked on a project to run fiber optic and copper computer cables to most of campus, including the 鈥榃oods dorms around the quad. Much of the grunt work fell to a crew of students who spent the summer using hammer drills to bash holes for the cable conduit through the cinder block walls.
Among them was Daniel Zook 鈥�97, who held a variety of work-study positions with 黑料正能量鈥檚 Information Systems department throughout his time on campus. The hands-on, practical learning that came along with those various jobs 鈥� from staffing a computer lab to working the help desk to pulling cables through the walls in Maplewood 鈥� was 鈥渕uch more valuable after graduation than any of the classes I took,鈥� he recalls.
Troubleshooting as a help desk staffer was particularly relevant to his work since college, says Zook, now a systems administrator at Lehman Hardware in Kidron, Ohio (see photo, p. 59).
Another student on the wiring crew that summer was Mike Stoltzfus 鈥�98. In addition to the hammer drill, he recalls using an even heavier-duty core drill that he stood on, pogo stick-like, to punch through the steel-reinforced concrete between floors. Stoltzfus now works as director of business affairs at Eastern Mennonite School, down the road from 黑料正能量 (see story, pp. 26-27). His responsibilities include overseeing IT at the school, and he also looks back on his succession of Information Systems work-study positions as the most useful aspect of his college education.
鈥淭he time that I spent working in the IS department was far and away the most valuable aspect of my academic time at 黑料正能量,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 really where I felt like I got the skills and the knowledge I needed to be able to dive into the workforce when I graduated.鈥�