Thursday, August 30, 2018
With two years working in the field before applying for long-term positions and scholarships, Remington Mueller took full advantage of the Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship Program. Through this program, Remington was able to gain hands-on work experience alongside classroom instruction.
Mueller genuinely enjoys working in IT because he can help people and he's good at troubleshooting. “Those are the two core backbones to the field,” he said. He earned the Information Technology Occupational Certificate of Proficiency (level 2) while completing certifications through the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). He received the CompTIA A+ certificate, which is the industry standard for certification in IT and will be taking the second test soon.
Mueller is a graduate of Stratford High School. As a student, a major highlight was participating as a youth apprentice in the Stratford IT department, working with teachers and students. He got into arranging and playing music for volleyball and basketball games, which transformed the atmosphere of their sporting events. Mueller was happy “to have an impact on the school-- for the positive.”
Looking back on his high school career, he is grateful for the educators who helped him, even though it may not have felt helpful at the time. “If you really stand back and look at it, generally, teachers or principals are trying to help,” he said. “Without their questions or checking in, I wouldn't have gotten to where I am now.”
Currently, Mueller is working full time as a student assistant in IT at Church Mutual Insurance. He works as the first point of contact between users and issues and is careful about working with people to solve problems without insulting them. He says knowing where to start to be most efficient, troubleshooting, and then finding a solution are all great feelings in his line of work.
He will continue to work in IT at Church Mutual Insurance as part of their IT Scholars Program this fall. In exchange for working part-time once the school year starts, Church Mutual will pay his tuition. He will be attending Northcentral Technical College and UW-Stevens Point in IT Networking and plans to stay with Church Mutual Insurance after graduating.