Locking-In to Success with the Operating Engineers

Young men and women from the CNX Foundation Mentorship Academy attended a day of instruction and hands-on experience at the Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers Joint Apprenticeship and Training Program facility in New Alexandria, PA.  The site is anchored by a massive 33,000-square-foot training facility equipped with classrooms and shops, as well as an outdoor complex where budding operating engineers can practice on a full spectrum of heavy equipment ranging from cranes/hoists to earth-moving machinery such as backhoes and excavators.

The impressive facility and associated instruction are affiliated with Local 66 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, which covers most of western Pennsylvania and parts of eastern Ohio.

Local 66’s Marketing Representative Gary Breidegam kicked the day off with a presentation covering what operating engineers do, the training path to becoming a journeyman, and what it’s like working in the trade. Of course, like many of the building trades, the pay and benefits are excellent. The presentation’s combination of formal slides but genuine discussion provided the students a great feel for what the path to becoming an operating engineer would look like.

Next, it was time to head outside, navigate through some mud, and take a turn at operating a crane and an excavator.

We’ve noted this before in prior blog posts but it’s worth repeating: there is nothing that beats a hands-on experience to convey to a prospective worker what it’s like to be a professional in the specific field. The trainers at the Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers Joint Apprenticeship & Training Program facility proved this universal truth once again. The excitement of the students was visible to say the least. As a bonus, they gained an experience that few other high school students can boast (we will be adding it to the resume, for sure).

A career in this field has an added, hidden advantage not understood until you sit in the seat of the machine. As one student put it, “I was having a bad week and was in a bad mood at the start of the day today. But when I got in that cab and started to focus on operating the excavator, I forgot all about the outside world and got locked-in to what I was doing. A job like this would be exciting.”

Meaningful work, great wages, and a therapeutic work environment. What more could you ask for in a career? Visit: https://www.wpaoperators.org/ to learn more about the Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers.

The Mentorship Academy is an initiative of CNX Foundation and part of CNX’s commitment to investing in its local community. Designed for high school students who do not plan to immediately attend a four-year college, the Academy is focused on providing urban and rural youth from economically disadvantaged regional Appalachian communities with greater opportunities—helping provide these young adults a bridge to family-sustaining careers. Following the mentorship program, students will have developed new relationships with peers and business leaders across western Pennsylvania, a new excitement for the region’s career opportunities and an understanding of how to pursue those careers.

Pro America Report Interview with Nick Deiuliis

Featured on Pro America Report with host Ed Martin, Nick discusses the origination of “Precipice,” explaining that when you cumulatively look at compartmentalized data points across society, you realize that things have not only reached perhaps just the precipice but rather the tipping point. “The scales have shifted,” says Nick. He goes on to address cancel culture and free thought; the concept of Creators, Enablers, Servers and the Leech; resetting the primacy of individual rights; fiscal responsibility, and more.

Listen here on Soundcloud.
NGI interview

NGI Hub & Flow Interview with Nick Deiuliis

Nick joined Natural Gas Intelligence’s “Hub & Flow” podcast for a wide-ranging interview. In the interview, released March 12, 2022, Nick addresses his conviction to advocate for the region he’s called home all his life, for an industry he loves, and for a company and team he’s been part of for more than three decades. CNX Resources’ unique brand of ESG is also covered, including the company’s Mentorship Academy and its latest Corporate Responsibility Report. Nick goes on to address the economic, environmental, and geopolitical benefits of American natural gas. He concludes with an outlook for natural gas over the next 20 years and where the demand growth for domestic supplies will likely come from.

Washington Examiner: An energy company shows students the path to prosperity

The CNX Foundation Mentorship Academy is profiled today in a Washington Examiner column by Salena Zito:

“Founded by [CNX Resources] CEO, Nick DeIuliis, who grew up in working-class Chartiers Valley, the program has the students meet once a month. They attend field visits with different trade associations as well as on-site visits and listen to guest speakers, usually CEO’s, to discuss career paths that don’t necessarily include college. There is also instruction in resume creation, job interviews, civics and business, and how to dress for success.

“The overall objective is to take these students from a place of no post-high school direction to a path of prosperity by exposing them to opportunities in the trades — and then ensure that they secure a job or an apprenticeship by the time they graduate. The benefits are significant when there is a massive skill gap in our current workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there are 6.5 million unemployed people in the United States despite there being 11 million job openings.”

Read the full column at https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/an-energy-company-shows-students-the-path-to-prosperity

Follow additional Mentorship Academy news on CNX Foundation’s Facebook page.

Summer’s Creepin’ In…What’s the Plan?

The primary topic of conversation at a duo of CNX Foundation Mentorship Academy sessions this past week—during two snowy, cold, bleak days in western Pennsylvania—was, of all things, summer. As in summer will be here before the students know it. Thus it’s time to start refining those resumes, sharpening those interview skills, and developing a customized game plan to further expand resumes and target specific career or professional tracks to pursue.

Since every individual student is unique, each plan of attack from now till summer will be specialized. Such tailoring requires one-on-one discussion and contemplation between mentors and students. The prior six months of hard work by both parties has paid off. Trust and familiarity have opened communication channels. Site visits have laid the groundwork for a better student understanding of the various career paths to choose from in the real economy that pay family-sustaining wages and that don’t require a college degree (or the four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt that goes with it).

Mentors were blown away by the focus and value of these one-on-one sit downs with each student the past week.

Resumes drafted in January are being refined and sculpted in February. Gaps in experience, volunteer work, job shadowing, or references are being identified for each student. A plan is being put in place to fill those voids over the next few months by designing Academy curriculum and events to deliver the desired results and accomplishments.

The most exciting takeaway from these February sessions? That’s easy. Interacting with students who came into the program last summer as unsure kids without a plan, and now seeing young men and women growing more confident and aware by the day. That growing confidence and awareness is both internal and external; of oneself as well as the wider world that surrounds them.

And sometimes it is the little things that precipitate the most profound changes.

Our partner, Dress for Success Pittsburgh, set up shop at last week’s sessions and provided an opportunity for students to pick out a professional outfit or two to wear for future interviews. The impact was something to see; almost as if the attire created a new uniform for the student where their demeanor and attitude amped up to another level. Attire matters, not just for the people you will be meeting, but just an importantly for the individual making the impression.

The growing sense of excitement and the smell of pending success are great, but now is not the time to ease up.

The Academy, mentors, CNX, and partner entities are going to double down between now and summer to help each student progress to the finish line. That finish line is clearly marked with a simple objective of a young adult entering a chosen career path.

Ain’t no stopping now. As the Navy SEALS like to say: the only easy day was yesterday.

Learn more about Dress for Success Pittsburgh at https://pittsburgh.dressforsuccess.org/

The Mentorship Academy is an initiative of CNX Foundation and part of CNX’s commitment to investing in its local community. Designed for high school students who do not plan to immediately attend a four-year college, the Academy is focused on providing urban and rural youth from economically disadvantaged regional Appalachian communities with greater opportunities—helping provide these young adults a bridge to family-sustaining careers. Following the mentorship program, students will have developed new relationships with peers and business leaders across western Pennsylvania, a new excitement for the region’s career opportunities and an understanding of how to pursue those careers.