How do your visits to UPS connect to what you're doing in school?
"Well, you have to work in school but this is a lot different. You
still have friends, but the work is a lot different than what we do in school.
But you're still learning things when you're at work. You have to work on
computers and solve problems. If a plane breaks down, it hurts everything,
so everybody has to work together to solve the problem."
Do you see the workers at UPS doing some things you do in school?
"A little bit. You still have to write and stuff, but it's not really
the same. So I guess not. They solve a lot of problems. We do, too, I guess,
mainly in math and science."
The UPS staff is going to give your class a problem to solve, based
on what you've learned during your visits. Is that the kind of thing you
do in school regularly?
"Well, we have some stuff like that. Like, um, let me see.... well,
what we're going to do is have a plane broken down from a bird strike and
we have to solve the problem. In school we have something sort of like that
-- we'll be working on experiments and stuff, if we pour too much on something,
we have to figure out what it is. So in a little way, I guess we do solve
some problems, but nothing like this."
-- 8th grader Rikki Burkhart
Do your experiences this year make you more interested in working for UPS?
"Not really. I want to be a pediatric nurse. Well, a little bit --
when I was working with that lady at her desk on the computer. I thought
that was kind of interesting."
What skills do these people use that has some connection with what
you're doing in school?
"You need typing skills. You have to work good with computers and technology.
You have to have lots of good teamwork."
--8th grader Holly Nall
What skills do you think you'd need to work at UPS?
"You've got to use the computer. Math. Mostly math and reading. Science
a little bit. You work with a lot of numbers."
Would you have to go to college to work here?
"Yeah. No. The people in the Hub (where packages are sorted every night)
sometimes get these good jobs. Some of the people here told me they were
just working, sorting packages, and then they began to get better jobs.
But college helps a lot. "
What did you learn from this experience?
"UPS taught us how to be what you want to be and not to let people
tell you you're a nerd, to tell you you're not supposed to be doing all
your good work. They taught us to ignore them and do what you got to do
in your life."
-- 8th grader Anthony Ramsey
"If you work at UPS you have to take care of a lot of things. You have
to make sure everything gets there on time. It's a lot of work. You have
to deal with a lot of people."
"I liked the job at AMDC where you have to use a mini-loader to get
parts out of the warehouse. It's a machine that runs like a robot, and you
use a computer to make it work. You use something like a ray gun to tell
which parts are which (bar code reader)."
-- an 8th grader named Jonathan
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Back to the Future Connections story