The Illinois Cooperative Work Grant allowed DACC to recruit industries as employers of Engineering students.  Cameron Alden, City Engineer, has recently hired two Danville Area Community College students as interns through the Illinois Cooperative Work-Based Learning Grant.  This grant allows local industries to hire DACC students for 20 hours a week and be reimbursed for half of the students’ wages.  Mr. Alden is excited to participate and eagerly states, “Without this grant, the City would not have been able to hire interns during the semester. As a result of the grant, we have gained the added benefit of hiring someone with an engineering background, and the interns have gained valuable work experience in an engineering capacity.”

Jeremy Washburn, a DACC aerospace engineering major, and Josh Gabehart, a DACC mechanical engineering major, joined forces with the City of Danville’s Engineering Department.  Josh was hired early this last semester and Jeremy was hired in the summer.  Both students worked directly with city engineers to accomplish their tasks.

Josh and Jeremy put many miles on their feet touring Danville while surveying and collecting data to be used for the new city maps.  They even got to draw and “semi-design” the new Winter Park softball field layouts.  In addition, they gained experience with the GPS system which was vital to their survey work.  On rainy days, Josh rested his feet in the public works library, which contains all the plans for past and present city projects.  Josh’s other primary duty consisted of cataloging many of these plans including an 1886 street profile, bridge plans from 1912, and the Fairchild subway plans for 1915.  “I was surrounded by history in the library,” states Josh.  Josh felt that the experience was worth his time.  “Having this internship under my belt makes me more competitive.  I have one more advantage than the next person when I go looking for a job. It taught me a lot about myself, too.”   Jeremy also produced design drawings in AutoCAD, assisted in surveying, construction inspection, and database generation.

The City of Danville has been very pleased with DACC students as interns.  Mr. Alden reports, “The engineering interns have been more driven and much more knowledgeable than our previous non-engineering students we have hired for summer work in the past.  This program and the DACC interns helped the City's engineering department produce more and better projects with a smaller investment.”

City Engineer Continues to  Hire DACC Students
Tom Alarie was hired when Josh transferred to Aqua Illinois.  Tom had the opportunity to work on the Winter Park Project.  He also mapped the sanitary and storm lines with AutoCAD, and surveys the city for future projects.  As a result of Tom's quality work, he was hired full time by the City of Danville giving Justin Behrens an opportunity to work with the city engineers.

Justin was involved in updating the engineering department's filing system, and their GIS mapping of the city.  He worked with MicroStation which is much like AutoCAD. It is used to lay sewer lines onto an aerial photo of the city.  When he has completed this long term project, city engineers will be able to link this map to their GIS system.  The GIS system will measure the efficiency of the sewers. Ultimately, his work will help engineers to improve the sewer systems.  Justin was involved in a traffic study of the downtown Danville area which will determine the legitimacy of converting some of the one way streets into two way streets.  He also assisted with J.U.L.I.E. which locates storm and sewer lines for the residents, and he participated in the detailed survey of Lynch Road which is supposed to be reconstructed by 2007.  In the summer he assisted in two bridge replacements: Hungry Hollow and Stoney Creek bridge. Justin comments, " This internship has taught me a great deal more than I expected.  It has enabled me to gain experience with three different computer programs, and it has given me a new respect and technical knowledge of the city!"  After graduation, Justin will be transferring to Southern and the City will be bringing Melissa Blackford on board.