From Classroom to Career: Gabriel’s Story
As a teen, Gabriel Degler always had an interest in robotics and engineering. This interest inspired him to enroll in a popular advanced engineering systems class during his junior year of high school. As part of his class curriculum, Gabriel participated in the newly established FlexFactor® competition through his school’s career center.
FlexFactor is a STEM education program designed by NextFlex to familiarize K-12 students with advanced manufacturing technology (with a specific focus on hybrid electronics), entrepreneurship, and the education and career pathways that can lead to a STEM career.
Gabriel enjoyed the process of brainstorming solutions for identified problems and conceptualizing an advanced hardware product enabled by hybrid electronics with his small team. During the competition, they presented a pitch to a panel of representatives from business, technology, and academia, with his team moving on to the regional competition at Sinclair Community College.
The following year, as a senior, he was invited to give a speech at the FlexFactor competition. During the event, he met a representative from Yaskawa Motoman, a company that manufactures robotics for assembly line facilities for big car companies, weld robots, and general use robots. Through this networking opportunity during the FlexFactor competition, he was able to apply and be hired for a position building robotics and programming.
Gabriel currently works as an Automation Technician at Yaskawa Motoman. He completed on the job training building on his work towards certifications during his senior year of high school. He credits his experience in FlexFactor for exposing him to new experiences and broadening his prospects.
“You get a lot of different experiences under your belt – team bonding, socializing for people that normally are more introverted, problem solving – and it makes you think about the future through networking and scholarships.”
