Millwright Intern
My name is Ethan Hoback. I am from Cedar Nebraska, and I recently graduated high school from Riverside Public Schools. I will be attending Northeast Community College in the fall for a welding certificate. I am interning with Aurora Cooperative’s Millwright crew under my mentor, Nate Panko.
I grew up on a feedlot south of Fullerton where I was surrounded by ag operations daily. I have experience working with both cattle at the feedlot and on a farming operation. Over time, I started helping with the maintenance side of things under the feedlot workers. I would learn how to fix and maintain different systems that we used such as trucks and tractors, but what I really enjoyed was doing my own projects. I started learning how to weld so I could build and fix fences and then later learned how to work on bigger projects. I have always like working with my hands, and I knew that’s the path I wanted to take which is why I chose the co-op: to continue doing a job that I enjoy. I like working on projects, alongside my co-workers, where we are counted on to keep machinery running.
The average day with the crew starts at 6:45 in the shop where we figure out where we need to go. Then, we either stay at the shop and complete projects there, or we go out to different locations that may need some maintenance. We work heavily on fixing elevator legs so locations can move products more efficiently. We are also tasked with projects that are location specific. For example, at the Grand Island Terminal, we are installing sheets of metal to make the storage walls easier to push on with a loader. We travel to almost all of our locations and a day can end up almost anywhere. There have been many times we start at one location, then we get a call to go fix something for a different location to which we pack up and leave if it needs immediate attention.
Working at the co-op, I have gained a very good knowledge of how our machinery operates, and I am looking forward to using this information for my future full time employment. I’m grateful to work for my crew of guys who have taught me everything and have made learning and my overall work experience fun.