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Area High School Students are Staying for Good Jobs and Small Town Life
When kids in a small town grow up, they move away, right? Not Angi Stakland. She found her career right here in Fairfield, as have many other kids, thanks to the town's booming economy and successful businesses. Many of the graduates of Fairfield High School, Maharishi School, and other area high schools are finding careers for themselves in Fairfield. Some even go away to college and then come back to work in local large corporations. Others, such as Lonica Kufner, founder of Natural Selections, have started their own businesses. The great thing is that future generations don't have to leave and parents aren't having to part with their kids--they get to grow with them, live in the same town with their families and in-laws, and, in some cases, even watch their grandchildren grow up.
It must be nice to be able to work in your home town, so close to your family. Says Angi Stakland, just 21 years old, "Yes, I'm close to home yet independent--it's great to be able to have lunch with my mom every day, but still have my own place to go to later."
Last summer, when I got to see Angi at work in Telegroup's domestic provisioning department, I was impressed as she cheerfully helped customers on her telephone headset or spoke with other reps in a very poised way. No one would have guessed that she was so young. Then she'd discuss with her colleagues, also in their 20s, how they would spend their paychecks.
That was in the new building Telegroup is renting at the corner of 185th Street and Highway 1. It was still undergoing construction at the time, and workers were running around the building, putting in interior walls and landscaping the front gardens in 100° heat. And sometimes the sound of drills was a steady echo down the air-conditioned halls. She and her co-workers each had an enclosed cubicle, but Angi's had a balloon flying over her desk that said, "Turning 21 and loving it."
Today I find her at a different Telegroup job in a more rustic haven--a giant barn-like structure on Highway 34. Llamas graze on the property. After getting through security, I sign in, put on my visitor's badge, and am led to Angi's desk by a towering Fairfield high school graduate and former football player of '96, O.J. Reyes, from Latin customer service.
Angi is bowed over her desk, phone in hand, her dark pageboy haircut hanging like a curtain over her face and hiding her expression. She is speaking with her back to the door, her body curled in toward her computer and multi-button phone, until she notices me.
"Oh, hi," she says, then goes back to the phone and says to her caller: "I have to go. Someone's here to do an interview with me." She turns to me and says, "Talking on the phone to England." She seems pleased with the luxury of being able to do so.
"When were you in England?" I ask her.
"Oh, I'm just back temporarily for about a month or so," she tells me. "I've been working the last six months in London."
Angi's career is on the move. She's had four different positions at Telegroup since her 20th birthday in July 1996--which was also her first day of work. Her first position was as a leads qualifier in the sales room, where, she says, she was basically a gofer, taking in all of the incoming calls and forwarding them to other sales reps. From the sales room she moved to domestic provisioning, and now she's with international customer service in the international collections department, which she loves. Angi says it's fun meeting so many different people in the United Kingdom and throughout the world in her job. Plus there's five American military bases in London, so even though she's living so far from home, she still meets people from her hometown. She recently met a woman from Packwood who's living there.
While Angi's waiting to get another visa to go back to London, she's temporarily in the Latin American office, and enjoys bantering with her Spanish-speaking friends who work in the same office.
As a result, Angi's desk doesn't have many of her belongings on it--only her big white bowling-pin water container, two fortune cookies, a Dr. Pepper, and a Cherry Coke, which she says is her "favoritest in the whole world."
"I got the cookies at lunch today," she tells me. "They say, 'You are very expressive and positive in work, art, and feeling' and 'Answer just what your heart prompts you.' " That seems telling of our interview.
"Most people expect you to have a degree, skills, and qualifications," she says, to get a position like she has. "But I got lucky and worked my way up." She's very happy in her new position, with a salary comparable to one you'd get in a big city but still having the comforts of a town you grew up in and its extensive business opportunities worldwide. Telegroup is ever expanding.
Angi continues to work as she talks about her experiences at Telegroup and in London. Her fingers push the rectangular mouse around on a blue foam pad, her gaze fixed on the big computer screen.
• • •
Mayor Robert Rasmussen says how refreshing it is to see local students finding careers at home-- sometimes even going on to college determined to come back home and become a success locally.
"There needs to be some giving back to the community," he says. "And it shows loyalty on behalf of our local high school alumni when they take advantage of the opportunities we have here for growth in business and careers. We're fortunate that with all of the successful businesses in Fairfield there are many management and supervisory positions that are available in the work force."
He thinks that young Fairfielders would be foolish not to take advantage of this, yet he also would like everyone to have the opportunity to see the world. "Fairfield is a great place to come home to for raising families and children--a safe place with great educational opportunities."
• • •
Fairfield has also become a mecca of opportunity for young people in the region. A.J. Northup, a Pekin High School graduate, works as an international customer service liaison at Telegroup. He has had the privilege of traveling extensively around Europe with this position. He went to Dusseldorf, Germany, with a team for five weeks to keep an "eye on things" at that Telegroup office. International business dealings have also led A.J. to train employees in the London and German offices on how to use data bases. He talks to Telegroup's international offices almost every day.
Before he got this job, A.J. says his only previous experience was working in sales for a telephone company. He enjoys the benefits that a larger company can provide, like stock options and bonuses. He says it's a way for the company to say, "Thanks for being here."
Linda Suurkula, a native Swede, spent her senior year at Maharishi School. She got a B.F.A. in computer graphics from M.I.U. and then took a job at USA Global Link in rep support for Latin America, which required perfecting a fourth language. Six months later, she took a position doing computer graphics full time, creating posters and flyers for trade shows, laying out advertisements for magazines and newspapers, designing brochures, and designing graphics for the company Web site.
USA Global Link reports that at least 10 percent of its employees are graduates from high schools in the area, including nine graduates from Fairfield High School, five from Pekin High School, three from Maharishi School, and two from Van Buren High School. The local alumni range from the 1971 to 1998 graduating classes, with one student about to graduate.
• • •
The numbers are likely to be larger at Telegroup, which has the additional advantage of a lot of young people working together. Angi enjoys "socializing after work with my mates--there's lots of people here to make friends with." As if for emphasis, a blonde girl I recall from my Fairfield junior high days swirls up to us and spins, showing off her fresh-cut, shiny, gold-streaked shagged do. "Cute," Angi says, as she gazes appreciatively.
More nice things about home. "Personal banking is great," Angi says. "They recognize me at Central Valley Bank--that was nice to come home to."
One more millionaire in the making. A number of millionaires have sprouted up in Telegroup since they went public and everyone who's been working there since last summer also has shares. Who knows, maybe Angi and her friends will take the role of being responsible for the community and donating their time and money to make Fairfield--and the whole world--a better place, with more opportunities for happiness and success.
