JWCC announces four scholarships in celebration of truck driving program’s 30th anniversary

QUINCY — Mike McDowell wakes up at 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and is on the road by midnight, embarking on his weekly 3,000-mile journey as a truck driver for Dot Foods. He’s powered by Ruffles potato chips, Gold Peak unsweetened iced tea and the stimulating sounds of Five Finger Death Punch, a heavy metal band.

His six-figure salary is empowering, too.

“My office is my truck. I’m not bothered,” McDowell said. “I just do my job, and I love it.”

He’s one of more than 2,000 drivers who have completed John Wood Community College’s Truck Driver Training (TDT) program since its inception in September 1994. Instructors, students, alumni and their families gathered to celebrate the program’s 30th anniversary at the newly expanded Workforce Development Centeron Quincy’s north side.

Speakers of the event were:

• David Hetzler, JWCC Dean of Career Technical Education;
• JWCC President Bryan Renfro;
• Chuck Woodyard, a 2006 graduate and operations director of B&N Trucking;
• Phil Steinkamp, instructor and co-chair of the TDT program; and
• Chris Koetters, a 2018 graduate and co-chair of the TDT program.

Renfro honored the TDT program’s first director, Don Hess, who built the program with the help of Sharkey Transportation and the program’s first batch of instructors, with a special mud flap with his name on it.

McDowell had been in construction before taking the course eight years ago. He’s now trying to convince his daughter’s boyfriend to enroll in the program — an idea that became more enticing with the announcement of four scholarships.

Scholarships for the six-week course, which begins Nov. 4, will cover tuition, books and fees. Interested people must be 18 years old and apply by Oct. 25 to be considered. 

“This program is like nothing else in the area. You can come in… (and) walk out with a career,” Woodyard said. “It doesn’t have to stop with truck driving.”

Woodyard completed the program in the fall of 2006 and drove for a local company for four years. He started driving for B&N Trucking, a Mount Sterling-based company, in 2010 and eventually worked his way up to his current role as director of operations.

“I love my job, I truly do,” Woodyard said. “I wake up, I look forward to going to work, I’ve got a great team, I work for an awesome company.”

The program was initially housed at Sharkey Transportation, then moved to the Workforce Development Center in 2009. Expansions and upgrades to the center were unveiled this past spring, adding 14,170 square feet and a few handfuls of new technology, including truck driving simulators, to the facility.

“As we look forward and look towards more technology that gives our students the best education possible, our students’ success still depends on knowledge and skill that our instructors bring to the students every day,” Koetters said. The TDT instructors have a combined 250 years of experience, according to Koetters.

Two open houses at the JWCC Workforce Development Center, 2710 N. 42^nd, are scheduled before the year’s end to provide more information on the program to potential students:

• Monday, October 14 at 6:30 p.m.
• Monday, December 2 at 6:30 p.m.

People interested in applying for the scholarship can contact Kelly Lewis, workforce development specialist, at lewis@jwcc.edu.