Clear Lake students take summer jobs to a new level

(Above) Lewis Callaway and David Guetzlaff spent the summer as interns at Kingland Systems in Clear Lake.-Reporter photo.

by Alli Weaver

High school students often scrounge for customer service, lawn care, and manual labor jobs during the summer months. However, two Clear Lake High School juniors were given an opportunity unlike the others.

Lewis Callaway and David Guetzlaff, both 15-years-old, were invited to work in the Development and Operations department at Kingland Systems this summer, focusing on the company website, Kingland.com.

The students were selected out of a group of about eight local high school students who toured Kingland’s facilities.  The whole group of students was given the opportunity to participate in an interactive session, which included solving problems and learning more about the company.

Clear Lake Schools Superintendent Doug Gee set the tour up as part of his initiative to involve technology and local businesses in Clear Lake High School students’ education.

According to Guetzlaff, the tour gave students an idea of what it would be like to work for Kingland, or at a similar company.

“When we came in here for school, that was really cool.  I think there should be more opportunities like that,” he said.

Following the tour, Callaway and Guet-

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zlaff approached Jason Toyne, Kingland chief technology officer, to express their appreciation for the opportunity to tour the business, and to show their interest in the work that they do.

According to Vernon Johnson, senior marketing and public relations professional at Kingland, before they met the students, the company didn’t plan to hire high school students, let alone to “entrust them with the look, feel and operations of our most visible company asset—Kingland.com.”

Little did they know that leaders Toyne and Tony Brownlee would find potential in the two soon-to-be high school juniors, and offer them a unique opportunity to begin their professional experiences in a business environment, while doing what they love.

“They exhibit the type of skills that show a bright future. They do it in their free time, and they just love it,” Brownlee said.

After noting the students’ interest in the company, as well as their go-getter attitudes, Kingland officials said “Let’s take these talented kids and give them the opportunity,” according to Brownlee; though Guetzlaff would say that they “charmed them with sparkling personalities.”

Callaway and Guetzlaff have been working on Kingland.com for between 20 and 30 hours per week since the beginning of June.  Their work has included assigned changes and bug fixes, as well as their own design change proposals.

Working on the website gave the students the chance to improve their coding skills in HTML and CSS. It also gave Kingland’s employees some time to work on other projects that they otherwise wouldn’t have had time for, according to Brownlee.

Aside from the great meals they say they enjoyed in the Kingland cafeteria, Callaway and Guetzlaff have relished working with and learning from Kingland employees throughout the summer, starting their professional experiences off with a strong stride.

Kingland has a large internship program in Ames, named as the number one employer of Iowa State University students since 2009, and presenting similar opportunities to younger folks with the right qualities was not a conflict, according to Brownlee.  He added that if there are students with the proper skills and the drive to get started, there’s really no reason that the business shouldn’t hire high school students again.

With new sets of problems to solve, and a head start in the professional and business worlds, Brownlee said that the students will have a “leg up” in future job searches and college applications.

“Young people who invest in their education can really do great things,” Brownlee said.

Callaway is considering going to Iowa State University for computer engineering, software engineering, or computer science.

“I’m always reading that there’s a shortage of people in this field in America,” said Callaway.

According to Callaway, getting high school students involved early on, as this pair have been given the opportunity to do, is important in inspiring interest in technological fields.

Getting close to “crunch time,” Guetzlaff said that he used this opportunity to explore a career path in technology or engineering related fields to get a taste of what field he’d like to pursue.

“They’ve done a great job, and I believe this is a great resume builder for each of them. This is a rare opportunity for these students,” Johnson said.

Callaway and Guetzlaff hope that Kingland and other businesses will offer similar initiatives in the future, to give students a head start on their professional experience.

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