Forest City Gear, an industry-leading manufacturer of fine- and medium-pitch custom gears, is hosting a vocational intern, Jace Richart, from Hononegah High School.
Richart, 19, is a student in Hononegah’s Vocational Internship Program (VIP). This program, supported by special education teacher and VIP field coordinator Justin Wieman, aims to prepare students with a range of disabilities including but not limited to intellectual disabilities, autism, or other health impairments for the workforce post high school. Vocational internships, such as Richart’s at Forest City Gear, help Wieman’s students build the specific skills employers are looking for.
This is Richart’s second year as an intern with Forest City Gear. “Forest City is amazing, in my opinion, and what they’re doing with Jace is unbelievable,” said Wieman. “They’ve really been pushing Jace and helping him reach his goal, which is to someday work in a manufacturing setting. We’re just ecstatic—we believe that Jace has these abilities, and the skills that he has learned at Forest City are the reason he’s going to be able to accomplish that dream.”
Dan Long, Forest City Gear’s gauge control and calibration administrator, has been Richart’s mentor through his entire internship. “Working with Jace these past two years has been a real treat,” said Long. “His personal drive and determination have allowed me to give him a variety of tasks that I know will be done with enthusiasm and pride. Just like anyone, Jace just needs a chance. We here at Forest City Gear are committed to giving him that chance, so he can become the productive young man I know he will become.”
Richart, his family, and his team at Hononegah are planning on him concluding his internships and education at the end of the spring 2025 semester. His goal in the next few months, with the help of insight from Forest City Gear and Wieman’s team, will be submitting applications to line up a job after graduation.
“Forest City has shown that they are completely invested in Jace as an individual,” said Wieman. “I know that I’m gonna go, ‘Hey, Dan, here’s this job that we’re looking at. These are the requirements. Do you know somebody that works here?’ ‘Do you know about this job? Can Jace do this?’ Or, ‘what does he need to learn?’ And Dan’s going to go, ‘He could definitely do it, but let’s go learn this really quick, because he might need to know this.’”
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