Shawsheen Tech Students Impress at Quantech
When Quantech Services Inc. of Lexington needed some help at its reception desk, Robin Sgrosso, the company’s Office Manager/Facilities Coordinator, had an idea.
A 1980 graduate of Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in Billerica who enjoyed the school’s cooperative education program as a student, Sgrosso suggested to company president Jim Monopoli that Quantech possibly look into using Shawsheen Tech coop students to work at the front desk.
“I just threw it out there,” said Sgrosso, a Burlington native. “He was hesitant at first, but I said ‘Believe me, they’ll be fine.’”
Monopoli reluctantly agreed, not anxious to put teenagers in charge of answering phones and dealing with customers from all over the country. He’d soon find out, however, that the Shawsheen students that were selected weren’t just any teenagers.
“He was pleasantly surprised,” Sgrosso said. “Everyone [at Quantech] was amazed. The skills these students come in with were better than people that had been in an office setting for a long time. They were confident about themselves.”
Recent graduate Tyler MacInnis and senior Rebecca McLaren were the Shawsheen students last year.
MacInnis is now in the work force as a union electrician while McLaren is still working through coop at Quantech, a small business, that provides high-quality consulting products and services in the areas of Program Management, Engineering Services, Cost and Financial Management to the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government clients.
Founded by Monopoli in 1999, Quantech has rapidly grown to an organization of more than 400 employees with locations throughout the United States.
Through their classes at Shawsheen, McLaren and MacInnis were proficient with Mircosoft Word, Excel and Outlook, all important programs that they used at Quantech.
“It’s always busy,” said McLaren, a soccer and ice hockey standout for the Rams and a member of the National Honor Society. “I am really enjoying it. It’s an impressive company.”
McLaren, who is in the Business Tech shop at Shawsheen Tech, has her sights set on being an accountant for a career, but her time at Quantech can only help McLaren’s marketability.
“I enjoyed working for them,” added MacInnis, a Wilmington resident and a three-year member of the Ram football team. “We helped with all of the departments there and did marketing, shipping, mailing and even financial stuff, anything they needed us to do. Whoever gets the job I had is a very lucky person.”
MacInnis was also a business tech student at Shawsheen.
“The front desk is a very important part of our organization,” Monopoli said. “They are the face of the business, greeting people coming in the door. We have some high-level government customers.”
Monopoli laughs now when remembering Sgrosso’s initial proposal.
“I wasn’t sure at first,” he admitted. “But these are two very impressive, well-rounded young adults. They both jumped right into the job and had very good communication skills. They are both very hard-working individuals with a good work ethic. We kept giving them more and more work, we piled it on them, and they just kept doing it.”
Juniors and seniors work opposite weeks of coop at Shawsheen, allowing Quantech to staff its front desk full time as the students rotated week to week.
With MacInnis gone, Quantech is now interviewing Shawsheen Tech juniors, hoping to fill its desk vacancy as quickly as it can.
“Shawsheen is a really good school,” said Monopoli, who went to college at Northeastern University and did coop jobs there. “I didn’t know a lot about Shawsheen until talking to Robin and Mary Ann Carlson, who also went to Shawsheen.”
Carlson is the Vice President of the Northeast Region for Quantech.
She is responsible for leading a 225-person division providing technical and acquisition support services to Electronic Systems Center (ESC) and other Government agencies. Carlson manages $31 million of contract revenues and is responsible for daily execution and P&L of all Northeast contracts. She is responsible for developing and executing new business opportunities and strategic partnerships to meet our corporate goals.
Carlson has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Western New England College and is pursuing her MBA.
Charles Lyons, Superintendent/Director at Shawsheen, commented: “Presently, over 125 local companies employ 138 members of our senior class in paid cooperative employment recognizing the competencies our students have acquired at Shawsheen. These experiences validate our programs and provide our students excellent work experiences and help motivate them to become exceptional employees.
“I thank Quantech and encourage other local companies to contact Richard Lavoie, Shawsheen’s Cooperative Placement Director, at 978-671-3619 or at rlavoie@shawsheen.tec.ma.us to partner with us in providing these important experiences for our qualified students,” Lyons added.
