I like looking at the jobs we have done in the past, and being able to say \u2018we fixed that wall\u2019 or \u2018we made this better.\u2019 — Connor Adams<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Adams, a full-time employee at UConn since 2017, first worked on campus as part of the Work Based Learning Program, which brings students from Connecticut\u2019s technical high schools to perform various jobs on campus.<\/p>\n He is the first Work Based Learning Program student to move on to full-time employment at UConn\u2019s Facilities Operations. The program, which started in fall 2014, has hosted 36 high school students at Facilities Operations, including 13 currently.<\/p>\n Adams, a\u00a0Thompson, Connecticut, native, heard of the UConn program in his junior year at\u00a0Ellis Technical High School in Danielson.<\/p>\n \u201cThe teachers told me that UConn was coming to school to interview a few students for this program, and wanted to know if I was interested,\u201d he says. Previously he had only visited the UConn campus on an elementary school field trip.<\/p>\n After being selected for the program, he began working on campus two days a week during the remainder of his junior year, doing work with concrete, plaster, brick, tile, and stone.<\/p>\n He continued to work in the summer of 2015, and then during his senior year, worked full-time during the shop time (non-classroom) part of his schedule at Ellis Tech. After graduating in 2016, he initially worked for a private construction company before being hired as an intern in UConn\u2019s masonry shop in October 2016, which led to his full-time position four months later.<\/p>\n \u201cI learned a lot of skills in high school, but the program at UConn helped me sharpen them quite a bit,\u201d says Adams. \u201cFor instance, I had never done plaster before and I worked with that here.<\/p>\n \u201cI like looking at the jobs we have done in the past,” he adds, “and being able to say \u2018we fixed that wall\u2019 or \u2018we made this better\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Longtime](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/mentor181204a020.jpg\")
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