For Janesville resident Jack Lindaman, an internship his senior year of high school with RSPN, an IT services provider, was eye-opening. It changed his mind about what IT career pathway he wants to pursue (networking analyst). It got him out of his comfort zone by going to work for a company in Cedar Falls. It allowed him to work remotely much of the time, which helped with balancing, school, work and other activities. Work-based learning “builds a new sense of responsibility and confidence and work ethic,” said Lindaman, who continued the RSPN internship in summer 2024.
Lindaman learned about the internship because Janesville High School has a sharing agreement with the Waterloo Career Center, which serves as a regional high school, where teacher Kyle Kuhlers told him about the opportunity. At the career center, Lindaman became president of the Cyber Club, and came up with the idea of troubleshooting IT issues for residents at a senior living community for free, which also helped students develop technology and customer-service skills.
Taking classes part-time at the Waterloo Career Center led to other opportunities, such as cybersecurity competitions, teaching teachers about cybersecurity and volunteering as a teaching assistant for a cybersecurity course. All this resulted in Lindaman being invited to share a student’s perspective with teachers at national computer science events in Nevada and Florida. In December 2023, he was recognized for at a National Cyber Signing Day in Arizona for his interest and accomplishments. Meanwhile, he played football and ran track for Janesville High School and earned an academic scholarship to attend Iowa Central Community College in fall 2024.
Lindaman, who plans to eventually earn a four-year degree at Iowa State University, said he’d recommend that every student try work-based learning. “I think it kind of amplified everything in my life, getting out and meeting new people and experiencing new things,” he said.
Kuhlers said he tells his students on Day 1 that every one of them can have the opportunity for WBL whether in cybersecurity, programming or another IT pathway. “I want to make sure my classroom represents the community and provides what the community needs,” said Kuhlers. To that end, Kuhlers regularly meets with businesses in the region to find out what skills they are seeking. For students, WBL helps them figure out what they want to do, and as a result some are hired directly into IT jobs after high school or work part-time for companies while they attend college, he said.
Mark Stewart, a partner at RSPN, said Lindaman was his company’s first high school intern, and he plans to hire another during the 2024-25 school year. “Overall, it was a good experience, and we got value out of it,” he said. “You are nurturing a student into the career you’ve taken and when they run through the college process, hopefully they remember us when they come out.”
Visit this link for more information on work-based learning in Iowa.