VERSAILLES – Austin Timmerman is a senior at Versailles High School and participates in the Agriculture Education Capstone Program. The Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone Program is in its eighth year of existence. Capstone is a program that gives Versailles High School junior and senior students that are enrolled in agriculture education an opportunity to gain real world employment experiences and opportunities while in high school.
This year a record 37 students are enrolled in the Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone programs and are leaving school after their daily required courses are complete and working at area businesses. The goal of the spotlight is to highlight each month one of the students that participate in the capstone program and highlight the skills/knowledge they are gaining, the roles/assets they are to their business. The students enrolled in capstone also use their employment as their Supervised Agriculture Experience Program. As part of their grade in capstone, students are required to keep detailed records of their hours worked, earnings and skills performed. In addition to the record books capstone students are being evaluated at the end of each nine weeks by an evaluation completed by their employer.
Timmerman started working at SISCO (Superior Implement and Supply Company) in Greenville in the summer of 2018 when he was going into his junior year and has continued to work throughout his senior year. He has worked over 1,600 hours since the start of his employment. SISCO is a wholesale farm equipment distributor for dealerships in six states with a large parts inventory.
Through Timmerman’s capstone employment, he has learned valuable skills such as customer interaction, time management, inventory management, and problem solving. On a day-to-day basis he helps customers find the correct parts needed to fix their machines as well as shipping out daily orders. He also assists with set up of new mowers and other farm machinery and helps clean the shop to make the next work day efficient.
Timmerman’s supervisor Josh Overholser, vice-president of SISCO said that “Austin has been a very valuable member of our SISCO team over the past year and a half. No matter what job we throw at him, he is always eager and willing to tackle the task. It’s great to have someone we know we can trust to get the job done right. Once he has been trained on a certain task, he can work independently to get the job done which frees up the rest of our warehouse staff to work on other projects. It has really helped our productivity.”
After graduation Austin plans to obtain an Associate Degree in Agriculture Business and maintain full time employment at SISCO.
