‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ Education efforts intend to open eyes to opportunities in transportation


By speNceR watsoN Contributing Writer


While most high school students might be


focused on memorizing the quadratic formula and content to spend summers pushing carts at a chain big box retailer, Jeffery Rodis was instead studying radio frequency ID technology and working an internship at Fuchs Machinery, subsequently part of BlackHawk Industrial. Now a sophomore at the University of Nebraska Kearney studying supply chain management, Rodis is on the front end of a new wave of education, one supported and guided by the Nebraska Trucking Association, which focuses on preparing students for careers in transportation right in the heartland of the industry. Not that it’s always easy to ride that wave. Just


ask Rodis himself. An aptitude test early in high school pointed him toward distribution as a field, but his initial reaction was puzzlement. “I thought, ‘well, I don’t know anything about


that.’” Enter Ben Brachle and Mike Rodgers, two


teachers at Millard Public Schools who, just in time for Rodis’s junior year, were kicking off a career academy focused on transportation, distribution and logistics. With classes covering everything from purchasing and supply chain principles to OSHA regulations, it’s a comprehensive program designed with the next step of education in mind. “Tis program is all post-secondary,” said


Brachle. “It’s all college classes that we teach to high school kids with [optional] dual enrollment. While they take high school classes they [can] earn concurrent credit at Metropolitan Community College.... At the end of the program, they’re halfway to an associate’s degree.” Te idea started with a push to teach


transportation science at Omaha’s Bryan High School and was developed into the full-fledged academy with post-secondary credit at Millard, Brachle said. Te genesis for it, he said, is the need


Continues on page 17 NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 4, 2013 — www.nebtrucking.com 11


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