Alumni Spotlight
Student Alumni Success ~ Nyle Obergfell
In 2003 I graduated from Culbertson High School with no real idea of what
I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I wanted to make money but I didn’t
know what I would love doing. My senior year of high school was pretty relaxed.
At the end of my junior year when I had to choose classes for my senior
year I picked simple things like; an internship with the Phys. Ed. Teacher
and teacher’s aide for the fourth grade. I even got to go outside
with the elementary students for recess duty. As I was choosing classes
I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do for first period. I was
talking with Jim Lambert one day and he told me about this new class that
was going to be introduced in the new school year. He told be about JMG.
My first thoughts were that this was going to be a slack off class and all
I had to do was show up. So I took him up on it.
The new school year went off without a hitch and here I was in this JMG
class. I remember there were four of us in the class and we had to pick
officers, and because I’m the way I am I just had to be President.
I was elected the first President of the Culbertson chapter of Jobs for
Montana’s Graduates.
On my 17th birthday I joined the Montana Army National Guard. On July
16th, 2003 I was on a plane to Fort Sill, Oklahoma where I would spend the
next 15 weeks. Because I joined the National Guard I wasn’t able to
attend college right away in the fall. I had to wait until the spring semester.
In the spring of 2004 I attended the University of Mary in Bismarck, North
Dakota. Like before I didn’t really have any direction. Through the
JMG in Culbertson I went to the hospital in Williston for a career day.
On this career day I spent some time in the X-ray department. It seemed
like a really neat job. So, when it came time for me to pick a direction
at college, I chose radiological technology. I wanted to take X-rays.
My National Guard unit was notified that we were to be deployed and it
was uncertain as to where we would be going. In November of 2005 we got
on a plane to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, to be reclassified as Military
Police. From Fort Leonard Wood we went to Fort Bliss, Texas, where we spent
15 months as Military Police. I worked in the Traffic section. During those
15 months I fell in love with police work. We came home in April of 2006.
When I returned home I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in the
Montana Highway Patrol. I tried when I returned home to apply for the Highway
Patrol but because of some mental errors on my part I was unsuccessful.
I went back to school for one semester and didn’t return for the next
because I knew in my heart I was going to make it into the Highway Patrol
the second time. I applied again and made it. I believe that my success
in the hiring process can be related to the skills I learned through JMG.
The Highway Patrol had a very long hiring process and without the resume`
and interview skills I learned in JMG I don’t think I would have made
it.
I am now, after 30 weeks of training, the Montana Highway Patrol Trooper
in Sidney, Montana. I’ve heard that the JMG program in Culbertson
is growing and pushing forward and I couldn’t be happier for it. I
believe that the JMG program is a great success and I only hope that it
can help high school students as it has helped me.
Nyle Obergfell
