Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
At age 24, Maxwell Yockus wasn’t motivated. He worked as a safety assistant at a school, but there was really no money in it.
Then he heard about a new opportunity at Grand Canyon University through his mom, Thea Andrade, Phoenix Union High School District superintendent. The district partners with GCU, and she knew Dr. Cherryl Paul, GCU’s assistant vice president of Academic Alliances, K12 Educational Development.
Paul’s son, Scottie, was entering GCU Center for Workforce Development’s 15-week pathway of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machinists.
Yockus soon signed up for a pathway for electricians. Both pathways lead participants through college courses and basics in their field and leave them in good stead to land apprenticeships in their trades via numerous industry partners aligned with the program.
“I hadn’t seen him this excited in a long time,” Andrade said. “He would come home and say, ‘Mom, this tool can cut through conduit!’ He’s excited for the next step.”
On Thursday at Global Credit Union Arena, he began the next step. He joined many of the 113 participants, including Scottie, enrolled in the pathways on GCU’s campus and at the university's center in Austin, Texas, to accept the certificate of completion at the center’s Night of Celebration.
That next step came quickly. He got in line at a nearby table set up in the arena as 19 were getting their assignments from McCarthy Building Companies as new employees.
“Congratulations, welcome to McCarthy,” Derek Salas, assistant project manager at McCarthy, told Yockus, shaking his hand.
Salas said those 19 students would be sent out to several projects in the Valley and begin full-time work and study as apprentices. Yockus is headed to a solar field in the next couple weeks.
“What I got out of the pathway was a basic understanding of electrical work, and it’s given me a good foundation to move on to the next step,” Yockus said. “I would have never had this opportunity without it.”
He agreed with his mom that it gave him a jolt of motivation.
“Just the chance to start a career that has some opportunity for some real money,” he said. “That’s what motivated me – my future motivated me.”
Coming from a family in education, he nevertheless realized that he preferred to work with his hands.
“Somebody’s got to do it, there is a real need. In the trades, they were saying people were retiring and they needed more spots, so I’m like, get your hands dirty. I’m physically able to do it.”
That need in the electrician, construction and manufacturing fields is what led GCU to launch its pathways in 2022, starting with electricians. It continues to grow with new summer programs in June that lead to a certificate after completing the electrician program and the manufacturing specialist intensive, or the semiconductor technician pathway. The semiconductor pathway is in partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has a massive complex in north Phoenix.
GCU President Brian Mueller told the audience of friends and family of participants that those who completed the program are emerging at the perfect time. It reminded Mueller of when his father returned from World War II. He was part of the era when America became a postwar manufacturing giant and “built the greatest middle class in the history of the world.
“We are poised to go through something very similar now in the next 10 years,” he said. “What’s going to happen is, we’re going to bring manufacturing and building back to this country in a major way. There are going to be thousands and thousands of opportunities to go to work for companies like Rosendin …”
Rosendin, an electrical contractor and industry sponsor who helped create GCU’s pathway, was led by Mike Greenawalt, the CEO emeritus who was the event’s keynote speaker.
“I graduated from Sunnyslope High School … I graduated at the top of my C Class,” he said jokingly of himself as an average student. “Just like you, after high school I was looking for direction.”
He signed up for a pre-apprenticeship program, and the rest is history. By the time he retired, he led a nationwide company with 7,000 employees and $3 billion in revenue.
But what got him there, he said, was finishing his apprenticeship, even though it was hard working all day and studying on the weekends. His advice goes beyond working hard and showing up, He chose the words of a country song, “‘Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson.
“If you got a chance, take it, take it while you got a chance.”
“This is your chance. Take those chances, not chances with risk, but opportunities," Greenawalt said of even digging a hole when you're asked to. "‘I don’t want to do that, it’s hot.’ Dig the hole. You are going to learn something about yourself. … And the supervisors are going to know that you’re ready to work.”
Many of the dozens who crossed the stage looked ready to work. They quickly fanned out to industry tables where some were hiring on the spot.
They were people like student speaker Matthew Sinclair, who said he led a self-centered path through high school and was even more alone as he worked at sea as a deckhand through his 20s and 30s. He came to Phoenix and tried to feel better about himself – and found it in God and helping others, he said.
“I found that I didn’t need to think less of myself, but I needed to think of myself less,” he said. “I don’t have to get up and do things today, I get to. That’s a huge perspective change.”
He found electrician work fit into that new perseverance, touching every aspect of society with his work. Now, at 42, he’s on his way to a new career with a new perspective.
“We’ve all been given such an amazing opportunity here,” he said.
They were people like brothers Juan Solis Robledo and Sergio Solis Robledo, who were awarded the first Chase Nuñez Memorial Scholarship. Nunez was in the first class in 2022 and was so enthusiastic about the program he often returned to campus to help where he could, said Shelly Seitz, the center’s director. He died in a motorcycle accident, and parents Jason and Jeneen Nuñez were on hand to watch his legacy live on in others.
They were people like Ethan Mabry, 20, who completed the CNC Pathway. After the death of both parents, he saw his sister, Candace Mabry, graduate in nursing from GCU last April while he worked at Amazon. Now, his path can include “using my brain a little,” he said, with the computer work involved in machining parts.
They all were constructing a new future.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu
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