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Lakeland grads/student part of career day at Kimberly middle school

Mar. 4, 2021

Two Lakeland graduates and a current Lakeland student all from Kimberly, Wis., are returning to their hometown to help middle school students start thinking about college and career options.

Lakeland’s Fox Cities Center and LU’s Cooperative Education & Career Readiness office have collaborated to provide programing for a Career Exploration Day on March 12 at John R. Gerritts Middle School in Kimberly. Lakeland will join Fox Valley Technical College as part of the program.

A panel of former Kimberly High School graduates that includes two Lakeland graduates and one current LU student will answer questions for the Kimberly students about why they went to college, how they decided on a career and the college they chose, along with other things they learned on their journey.

Kimberly students will also participate in a virtual activity about college and watch a short video tour of Lakeland’s campus.

“The focus is about career exploration and college so students can make the best decision for themselves,” said Amy Pearce, director of Lakeland Fox Cities Center and Central Wisconsin Center. “These three students represent a Kellett School student, a transfer student, and a traditional pathway student, so all facets of Lakeland will be on display.”

The Kimberly High School graduates representing Lakeland are:

• Carleigh Johnson, a 2019 Lakeland graduate, who lives in Kimberly and works at the Oshkosh Corporation as the COVID contact in the human resources department. She enrolled at Lakeland’s main campus right after graduation as an education major, but switched to marketing and business and completed a number of internships.
• Jared Koski, who lives in Appleton and plans to graduate from Lakeland this December with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a minor in business administration. After graduating from Kimberly, Koski attended UW-Oshkosh-Menasha extension, and then he transferred to Fox Valley Technical College where he graduated with associate degrees in network specialist and information systems security as well as TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification. He enrolled at Lakeland after serving an internship at the Walt Disney Corporation in Orlando, Fla.
• Rodolfo “Tito” Sosa, a 2010 Lakeland graduate who works as product manager at SANY America, a construction equipment supplier in Peachtree City, Ga. He has more than a decade of professional sales experience, and previous employers have included Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas, JCB North America and The Mark Travel Corporation. After graduating from Kimberly High, he attended Fox Valley extension school in Menasha and Fox Valley Technical College.