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Lou Fusz
Julie Elking and Randy Harman stand against a light blue backdrop and smile.

At the 2023 Salutes banquet, Randy Harman and Julie Elking, talent acquisition professionals at Lou Fusz, were presented with a Special Ambassador Award for their partnership with North and South Tech High Schools. The seeds of this partnership were planted in 2019 when Harman attended a seminar regarding a disaster on the horizon - the impending retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. He was prompted to investigate the implications such retirements may have on his workplace and found that 27% of their technicians were set to retire in three years. That’s when Harman started to talk with students at career and technical education schools, beginning with post-secondary schools like State Tech and Ranken, and then North and South High Schools.

Harman is on a mission to educate young people about the earning potential of automotive technicians.“In five years, [they] can be making six figures,” said Harman. He wants students to know about the variety of opportunities in the industry. Harman lamented that students are still discouraged from going into the trades.

Part of helping students understand those opportunities is ensuring that automotive tech students have what they need to learn, including vehicles to work on during the school day. Lou Fusz has donated vehicles to North and South Tech through this partnership. Harman remembers bringing the first vehicle, a Ford cargo van with engine issues, to South Tech. The students were so excited they were climbing all over it,” Harman reminisced, “To see the kids get so excited about what they do, that’s what it’s all about. Vehicles are textbooks for these students, so they were excited about learning.” 

Aaron Wadell, 2017 graduate of South Tech High School and current Lou Fusz employee, also visits current South Tech classrooms to speak with students and tell them that there are a lot of places to work in the trades. Some companies, like Lou Fusz, go above and beyond to ensure their talent is nurtured as far as they can go.

Wadell has worked in several different service centers, from small mom-and-pop shops to the largest used car dealer in the United States. During the 2020 pandemic, Lou Fusz was hiring while other places were downsizing. He started at Lou Fusz as a collision repair technician/backup painter and was quickly promoted to a new custom paint department that he manages.He feels that Lou Fusz provides the best of two worlds - “the benefits of a large company while being run like a family organization.” 

To extend learning beyond the school buildings, North and South Tech students have taken tours of Lou Fusz’s Vehicle Improvement Products (VIP) division, where cars are retrofitted for organizations like police departments or wrapped for branding and advertising purposes. Students get to see the opportunities in automotive technology firsthand and get introduced to the Fusz Automotive Student Technicians (FAST) Garage program, which is located in the VIP division.

Ken Neuman, South Tech Auto Body and Collision Repair instructor, is very positive about the partnership with Lou Fusz, stating, “Great students at great businesses, like Lou Fusz, make for a prosperous future for all.”

Harman agrees, saying, "The relationship with South and North Tech has been amazing.”