Joshua Hanke

Joshua was a bartender for almost 20 years and finally decided that there must be more than being an “old man bartender.” Joshua wanted to change his life around and found Spartan to be the answer.

At Spartan, Josh channeled his efforts into being the best student that he could be, thus garnering him the title of Valedictorian. Joshua is now a Quality Inspector with Webco.

Transcript:
What I learned here is what I'm now doing for a living, and for the rest of my life I'm going to have a career. Instead of being an old man bartender.

My name is Joshua Hanke. I am currently a quality inspector at Webco Industries. I work with eddy-current and ultrasonic machines and test steel tubing. I grew up in Southwest Missouri, just south of the Joplin area – about two hours from here. And I've been a bartender for almost 20 years. I was suffering from clinical depression, and kind of self-medicating with alcohol, and I needed to change my life around and Spartan did exactly that for me. It probably saved me from going to prison.

I graduated last year, in March. First time, in a long time, I've ever put any effort into something positive. And I just committed to being a student and focusing on, you know, being here every day, on time and being fully engaged in what the instructors teaching. I ended up exactly where I wanted to be. You know, two weeks later after I graduated, I'm working for a company doing what I went to school for. Getting paid good money and it's awesome.

I get to do something different every minute – that's what I like.

It's a serious business, you know you can hurt somebody, and you're responsible for testing things that can hurt lots of people. You know if you're signing off on this saying, “Hey. I've inspected this and it's good.” It's got to be good.

You don't have to know anything when you start, you just have to be committed to being a student. Get to know your instructors, talk to your instructors, ask for help. There's lots of people here to help you. Like, I'm not that great at math. I got an A in algebra and I never thought I would ever be able to say that.

“I will always owe this institution a huge debt of gratitude, not only for the excellent education I have received but also for reminding me of the excellence that still resides myself.”

I don't know the terminology to explain – it's literally transformed my life, and I love it.