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WATCH FOR UPDATES COMING SUMMER 2008!!
WACTC Truck Driver Program
By Cindy Bailey
GreeneSpeak Editor & Publisher
OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF
GREENESPEAK PUBLICATIONS
Headquartered at:
99 S. Washington St., Waynesburg, PA
Greene County
MAILING ADDRESS:
P. O. Box 1003
Waynesburg, PA 15370
BUSINESS PH: 724-344-7980
E-MAIL: cindy@greenespeak.com
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Winding road home:
WACTC Truck Driver Instructor Chuck Ulrich, a Waynesburg native, says unexpected career turns have strengthened not only his teaching skills but also his character
By Cindy Bailey
GreeneSpeak Editor & Publisher
CANONSBURG--These days Chuck Ulrich says he feels like he has arrived, but it took a long and winding road to get to his personal destination.
As lead instructor and Commercial Driving License Examiner at Western Area Career and Technology Center Professional Truck Driver School in Canonsburg, he says he can really relate to the challenges his students face as they start a new career. A native of Waynesburg, Ulrich, 51, says his first career began back in 1974 when he was hired as a roof bolter at then-Gateway Coal Company.
“I thought I had it made,” he says. He eventually worked his way up to become a continuous miner operator. “I was very good at loading coal,” he says. “I still run into people I used to work with who remember how fast I could load coal.”
When the coal ran out and Gateway shut down in 1990, Ulrich, who now had two small boys, recalls feeling lost and shaken.
He decided to try truck driving. After nine weeks of training at a school in Crafton, he earned his CDL and went on the road, a good job he held for 15 years.
When he heard that the new WACTC Professional Truck Driver Program was looking for instructors, he decided to put his more than three decades of job--and life--experience to the test. One year ago, Ulrich accepted the position of instructor and recently earned his CDL examiner’s license, two accomplishments which he says makes his mother, Lillian Hopkins Ulrich, proud. She still lives in the Morrisville section of Waynesburg where Chuck grew up and is his biggest fan.
“My mother stood by me during the rough times, and she’s really proud of me in my new position here at the truck driver school,” he said.
For Chuck, though, his professional satisfaction comes from helping someone who feels as bewildered as he did 15 years ago. “We get a lot of people who have lost their longtime careers,” he said. “It’s easy for me to help people like that because I know what they’re going through. They are special to me because I went through it.”
Currently, he says his students range in age from 19 to 58 and come from many walks of life. The atmosphere at the school, he says, is relaxed and friendly, which he attributes to the whole staff: instructors Gene Karns and Warren Garber, program director Mary Beth Minor and staff assistant Kristi Bochnak, who notes that her father also had worked at Gateway Coal.
The Truck Driver Program consists of 150 hours of instruction, including 44 hours of one-on-one driving time, and students can now take their CDL test on the site. Minor says the program is very flexible, with classes held seven days and five nights. For more information, call her at 724-746-2890, ext. 138.
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GET ROLLING ON A NEW CAREER TODAY!
CALL NOW: 724-746-2890 EXT. 138
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