Q&A with Brooklyn Kiefer, member of Conexus Indiana’s 2024 Rising 30 class
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In May, two young professionals from the Evansville region were included in Conexus Indiana’s 2024 Rising 30 class. The award honors Indiana’s top talent under the age of 30 making strides in advanced manufacturing and logistics.
Brooklyn Kiefer was a production manager at Jeep Engineering and Manufacturing at Northeast Dubois Jr/Sr High School during the 2023-2024 school year. Katelyn Niederhaus is a parts ordering analyst at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana in Princeton.
Kiefer spoke with Inside INdiana Business about the role she played in her high school’s student-run business, her college plans and the reasons her generation is interested in skilled trades.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How did you become interested in advanced manufacturing?
Whenever I got into high school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. We had this thing where teachers introduced what their classes were to incoming freshmen. I saw some of the engineering classes, and they seemed like a lot of fun. After my first year of engineering, I really liked it.
My engineering teacher from freshman year told me I would be a good fit for the Jeep Engineering and Manufacturing program. So I took that to fill another elective, and then I just stuck with it.
Tell me more about the Jeep Engineering and Manufacturing program.
It’s a class you can take throughout the day, but it’s also a student-run business. We do a lot of stuff for our school. We make awards for all of the athletics. We make awards for departments. We have lasers, CNCs, plasma 3D printers, vinyl and heat presses, stuff like that.
Most of our business comes from our community, and we outsource to Jasper Engines and Meyer Distributing. We do a lot of stuff through them, and they’re very helpful. They became our partners in the past year or two.
What was your role as production manager?
I was in here for four periods throughout the school day. Most of the time, I answered emails that came through JEM. I talked to customers, trying to figure out what they wanted and how to fit it within their budget. Most people don’t know exactly what we can do so it takes a while to explain our capabilities.
A classmate and I would go back and forth, making sure the invoices were put in, and I kept track of what everybody was doing. On the side, I designed some stuff for our laser to keep everything moving. I did the same role for three years, but we officially gave it a title this past year. You can’t take JEM as a freshman because you need to have a prerequisite in either business or engineering. You have to have some idea of what you’re doing.
What challenges did you experience in the program?
We had a lot of challenges because the whole class was only there for 45 minutes a day. We had a lot of issues with communication because certain people were there at one time and certain people were there at another time. It was kind of a stretch with the heavy inflow of orders we were getting. Plus, during the day, we shared the classroom with other classes that had nothing to do with JEM. So we had to clean up our spaces.
What successes did you have as production manager?
This year, we made extremely large strides. We got so much more done this year, which made me happy. We did a lot more work for Meyer Distributing and Jasper Engines, which is exceptional because we are so small. To be able to work for big companies like that was awesome.
How do you think your peers view advanced manufacturing careers?
I like this program because a lot of the people in it don’t want to go to school for a long time. So when they’re in there getting to work with their hands and doing something they enjoy, it opens their mind about stuff they can do once they leave.
We’ve been connected with a whole bunch of people who want the kids coming out of this class to go straight into work for them. Jasper Engines has been big about getting us out there. I’m still going to college for engineering. That’s what I want to do. But there are kids who want to go into trades because of JEM, and it’s a great thing.
Tell me more about your plans after high school.
I plan to go to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for engineering design. There’s this program called Rose Squared where I would be able to get my bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in four years. I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish that in those four years and then go directly into the workforce.
I’m pretty much a homebody, so if coming back here is a possibility, then that’s definitely what I would be looking towards. But there are a lot of options, and I don’t know that I would come back right away. The end goal is to come back a couple of years after college.
How do you think your generation will shape the future of advanced manufacturing?
A lot more kids want to work with their hands, and whenever kids are introduced to something like this so young, it’s a head start for all of us. I got to play the role of running a business. It’s helped me tremendously with speaking to people and communicating with adults and the proper way to email. I’ve learned a lot. It’s put me ahead of where I ever expected to be.
But then the kids that don’t necessarily want to go to school, they’re also finding out what they can do and have the possibilities to do in the future.
How does it feel to be a member of Conexus Indiana’s 2024 Rising 30 class?
It’s sweet. I was honored to be nominated. I don’t like bragging, but it was good recognition because within my last three years of this program, we’ve done a lot, and I’m happy with the direction JEM is headed.