Two recent grads gain opportunity through Machinewell, Inc.

Shantel Verbout and Jordan Hagen were two very different people during high school. Shantel Verbout could usually be found on the court, whether it be playing basketball or volleyball. Jordan Hagen was more likely to be working on the school’s record-setting high-mileage car. These two are very different, but their futures both happen to be quite similar. Both are working with Machinewell, Inc., in Grygla, doing a college program.

The Machinewell college program is a two year program. Students who choose to go through it have to meet the standards throughout their college years. They must keep above a 2.0 G.P.A. in order for Machinewell to pay for ¾ the cost of college. Whomever doing the program must pay for the first semester and Machinewell will pay for the other three semesters. They can choose different colleges to go through but the college must meet the requirements of Machinewell. After completing college with the degree of your choice, you must continue to work for Machinewell for an additional two years to complete the program in its entirety. If you do not complete working for them or do not meet the standards of the program you will have to pay back the money that was in the deal. 

Shantel Verbout is the daughter of Jimmy and Brandi Verbout. She will be attending Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls. She will be majoring with a degree in Business. She would love nothing more than to run her own business one day. As of right now she works full-time at Machinewell, mostly filing papers and doing inventory. She enjoys being close to home whilst working. She decided to do the program through Machinewell given it would help a lot with expenses. She is the first person to do the program to work towards a Business degree. This could open a lot of new doors that could lead to other degrees that Machinewell could offer other than the typical Machinists degree that is mostly thought of.

Jordan Hagen is the son of Vince and Heather Hagen. He will be attending Central Lakes College in Staples. He will be majoring with a degree in Machine Tool Technology. This summer he has been working full-time in the Machinewell shop. He has been busy trying to learn how to run all of the machines there. He choose to do this program for the financial aspect and he loves the people he works with. He believes a good job should be in an enjoyable environment and pay enough to support himself. He believes Machinewell can offer him both of these things. He enjoys coming to work every day. He likes the fact that working as a machinist is a very interesting career field.

Editor’s Note: Carlye Kiesow, who will be a junior at Grygla High School, is interning with the Grygla Eagle Newspaper for 10 weeks. She has been given the opportunity to choose and write a human interest story to be shared with our readers. Watch for her front-page stories to be featured each week over the course of her internship!