General

Youth Power Summit gives students
a look at paths to the future

All eyes were on a panel of young OPPD professionals during a session at the first Youth Power Summit this fall.

OPPD’s Michelle Stolinski, Maurice Kimsey, Cynthia Morin and Elizabeth Danielson shared their journeys to the utility and offered career tips with 125 Omaha Public Schools (OPS) students who attended the daylong summit.

“The summit fulfilled an initiative to engage with younger students who someday soon will be our customers and our employees,” said Natalie Kuypers, event channel specialist at OPPD. “Our goals included educating them about public power, letting them know what OPPD is doing around sustainability and informing them of career opportunities in the energy field.”

The career focus centered around science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

OPPD partnered with the Kiewit Luminarium, the site for the summit, as well as Metro Community College and OPS.

Start networking

During the panel discussion, Kimsey, program manager distribution automation strategy, told the students that he was an introvert when he was their age, and that he thought he had to tackle everything on his own.

“I didn’t realize the importance of reaching out to other people,” Kimsey said. He used the example of classmates retaining different parts of lectures and reading assignments. “When we formed study groups, we were stronger together.”

Kimsey and the other panelists also told the students to seek out internships, scholarships and job-shadowing opportunities.

“Today, you can get a good idea of what a job entails on YouTube and LinkedIn,” said Kimsey, who worked five of his 17 years at OPPD as an intern. “Start creating profiles and networking now.”

Kimsey also focused on factors other than studies and grade point averages.

“Learn all those subjects, but in the workplace things that also matter are accountability, responsibility, being a team player and putting in the effort. These are things you can’t put a GPA on, but they make a big difference,” Kimsey added.

Thoughtful plan

A good amount of planning went into the event to ensure its value and success.

The OPPD planning team included Kuypers, as well as Eric BenSalah, energy consultant; Jamie Wagner, product manager; and Bridget Slavin, sustainability program manager.

Before the school year started, the team presented the summit idea at an OPS curriculum specialist meeting. This helped shape the content of the breakout sessions and connected the team with contacts at the six schools that took part: Burke, Northwest, Buena Vista, Benson, Central and Westview high schools.

Break-out sessions included:

• An exercise about the electric grid, with BenSalah leading a hands-on exercise using string
• A look at OPPD’s sustainability efforts and tips on saving energy, led by Slavin
• Another grid-making experiment, this one led by Metro Community College g in the Luminarium’s Maker Space, using tubes and syringes to distribute water
• Guided tours of the first and second floors of the Luminarium

“We could see throughout the day that the kids were opening up and getting more excited about what they were learning,” Kuypers said.

Jim Musil, Career Education Supervisor at OPS, said the event was great for the students.

“They learned it’s not just about electricity, but OPPD has a variety of career opportunities,” Musil said.

OPPD has roles that fit into each one of the Nebraska Department of Education’s six career fields, Musil said: agriculture, food and natural resources; health science; communication and information systems; business, marketing and management; human services and education; and skilled technical sciences.

“They could relate to the young professionals,” he added.

‘An awesome day’

“The Youth Power Summit aligned perfectly with the Luminarium’s mission,” said Annabelle Abisset, partnership coordinator at the Kiewit Luminarium.

“The Luminarium is a place for people of all ages, identities, and backgrounds to explore astonishing phenomena at the intersection of science, art and human perception,” she said. “It was an awesome day. It’s important to create unique experiences. The summit encouraged curiosity and provided rich, diverse experiences for the students.”

Luminators (the facility’s young adult workers, ages 15-25) led the guided tours of the four galleries, with more than 100 interactive exhibits. In addition to learning about the OPPD careers, students also learned about opportunities at the Luminarium, as well.

“These are part-time positions, and anyone interested in STEM can apply. We give them training they need,” Abisset said.

“Overall, we hope students walked away with curiosity and excitement about STEM,” Kuypers said.

Based on the positive feedback, Kuypers said they hope to do another Youth Power Summit next year.