On Tuesday, August 27, Kids to Love hosted a luncheon to officially welcome our KTECH Ambassadors to the KTECH Family. The KTECH Ambassador Program is an initiative visioned and spearheaded by KTECH Workforce Development Director, Dorothy Havens. In July, Havens recruited and invited 20 business, education and industry leaders to join a roster of community influencers to actively promote and support the KTECH Mission. KTECH is a workforce initiative of the Kids to Love Foundation, a nonprofit which accepts no local, state or federal funding.
Because our programs rely solely on the generous contributions of our community, individuals and corporations, it was imperative we curate this group of community leaders who already have a reputation for championing the under-resourced. The Ambassadors, who each serve a 3-year term and meet biannually, are tasked with a yearly financial obligation toward KTECH educational excellence. In addition, they pledge to distribute KTECH promotional materials, and to post and share about KTECH across their social networking platforms. Perhaps most importantly, they are a public mouthpiece to share the value of enrolling as a KTECH student to potential program participants. During the luncheon Tuesday, Madison Mayor Paul Finley, who has been involved with KTECH since the program’s inception in 2016, greeted his fellow Ambassadors with an opening message.
“As a mayor, if we’re focusing on quality-of-life issues in Madison, we’re going to do everything we can with what we can control. But the reality of it is, we are not responsible nor can we take care of everything,” the Mayor started. “There are specialty areas that need additional focus; foster children and foster care are ones that help us immensely with quality-of-life. What Lee and her team have done locally and then expanding out has made a major positive impact for our city but also the state of Alabama, Tennessee and so-forth. 4 years in, they are now tying together opportunity with the needs of the community,” Finley elaborated. “The next step is communication and bringing more people into the mix to support the needs and to find people to come into these programs.”
During the meeting, Ambassadors were privy to exciting numbers and statistics, including the fact that KTECH boasts a 100% completion rate for Mechatronics graduates, a graduate ratio of 75% male and 25% female, a total of 107 graduates with robotics and soldering added in 2018, and that 19 companies employ our KTECH graduates. Other notable highlights shared include that 2 KTECH Graduates are in the Toyota F.A.M.E. Program; 2 KTECH Graduates interned with Polaris; and that a KTECH Graduate recently trained in Switzerland for BOCAR.
Ambassadors also got to hear from current class 11 KTECH students, Takia Reid and Anthony Bencun about their experiences with the program. Click here to listen to and watch their testimonies.
Soon, we will be sharing with you vignettes from each of our Ambassadors, so stay tuned to hear the passion behind their commitment to KTECH. Special thanks to Mike Murdock with our Education sponsor, Huntsville STEAM Works. In the meantime, we would like to recognize all the following leaders who have taken a monumental step in partnering with us in such an unprecedented way in their roles as KTECH Ambassadors:
AIDT
Kristi Creel Bain
Assistant Director of North Alabama
AUM Foundation
Alka Bhargav
Founder & Executive Director
BOCAR
Justin Rummer
Vice President, Plant Manager
Calhoun Community College
John Holley
Dean of Technologies
CB&S Bank
Taron Thorpe
Regional President
City of Madison
Paul Finley
Mayor
Downtown Rescue Mission
Mark Gradkowski
Chief Administrative Officer
Driven Solutions
Tiffany Jordan
President
i3
Carl Duckett
Program Manager
i3 Cares
Jamie King
Cyber Security Engineer
Mazda Toyota
Scott Russo
Talent Acquisition Manager
Nextek, Inc.
Annette Statum
Senior Director, Human Resources
Polaris
Phillip Ray
Human Resources, Huntsville Operations
Progress Bank
Jennifer Jordan
Branch Sales Manager
Redstone Federal Credit Union
Ian Pinkerton
AVP Business Innovation
SCI
Jamie Williams
Senior Human Resources Representative
Siemens
Peter Llewellyn
Technical Information Developer
Technical Training Aids
Travis Coon
Operations Manager
Two Men & A Truck
Joe Hollingsworth
Franchise Owner
Tyonek Native Corporation
Stephanie Deemer
Director of Marketing & Communications