by Jennifer McCormack
Just a couple of months ago, 31-year-old David Salter was unemployed and struggling — a self-described “blank slate” yearning for challenge and change.
Today, as one of the first students in a Yavapai College internship program for Prescott-based orthotics company RESA Wear, he is about four weeks away from reaping the rewards of personal reinvention through workforce training.
“I feel more accomplished doing this,” David said during a class break. “This is exactly what I wanted. It’s accelerated and you start working while you’re learning.”
David pursues his academic studies in the areas of computer networking, 3D printing and electronics three days of the workweek at YC, and experiences on-the-job training with RESA the remaining two days. “This is technical and it’s physical. That is the perfect job for me,” said the intern who consistently earns As and Bs in his technology courses. “I’m learning things that most people don’t know about.”
Nudged by his sister and brother-in-law in Prescott Valley, David answered the call for RESA interns in January. The firm is growing and seeks 300 trained workers over the next three years to respond to expanding market opportunities. Before being selected for the internship, he spent his days waiting for phone calls from an employment agency. A shoulder injury had cost him his warehouse job in California. The employment agency rarely called.
David left California without looking back and is now about a month away from likely landing a full-time, $25-an-hour job with RESA. He hopes to become a technician traveling the country to troubleshoot RESA’s 3D orthotics printing kiosks in Costco, Walmart and other retail stores.
Recalling that his former warehouse job paid an hourly wage of just under $15, David said that while driving a forklift takes some skill, working for RESA is tapping his brain power — so much so, he said, that “I find myself sleeping soundly at night.”
Along with the travel and technical challenges he foresees in his new career, David is looking forward to helping RESA customers get the custom orthotics they need to alleviate pain and increase mobility.
“We are going to be helping people live out their daily lives,” he said.over-ride elections, consolidation and unification, accountability, school labels, special education, student assessments, curriculum versus standards, and the list goes on.
Please vote and make education a factor in how you rank candidates. Arizona is electing a U.S. senator, filling all of our congressional seats, a governor, secretary of state, treasurer, corporation commissioners, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, 90 legislators (a senator and two representatives in each of 30 districts), and the members of community college and school district governing boards. Yes, each one of these people impact the education of our children.
Lincoln was right. Thank you for supporting our children, our most precious resource of all.
