Wins Malco Products’ ‘Head of the Class’ award
Hunter Hebert said he had an awakening following his freshman year at Hahnville — both figuratively and, in a way, literally. “In my freshman year, I slept a lot,” Hebert said. “I didn’t really try. Sometime in my sophomore year or so, I realized that I’ve gotta get back on this. I watched myself mature.”
Hebert began to realize the importance of getting it done in the classroom and setting himself up for post high school success. He got to work, established a plan, and is now reaping the rewards: he was recently recognized as the top senior student in the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Commercial Refrigeration (HVAC) program and honored by Malco Products with its “Head of the Class” award, given to outstanding students graduating from career education programs in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Building Construction and Autobody Repair.
“I was told that I worked the hardest,” Hebert said. “I was pretty excited. They gave me a certificate and a hat, along with a little set of tools for refrigeration and AC.”
Hebert said he’s always been a hands-on person, which led him to HVAC.
“I finished all of the wood shop classes and couldn’t take any more of them,” Hebert said. “I thought I’d try HVAC to try something a little different.”
It came pretty naturally to him. Hebert plans to become an engineer specializing in instrumentation, a decision he made after he began working at Cospolitch, which manufactures a host of products including refrigerators and deep freezers.
“It all has to do with electrical parts, and once you learn a little bit of it, it kind of becomes common sense to you,” Hebert said. “I kind of knew the key elements already. (Different manufacturers) make ones that look different from one another, but the main components are the same.”
He has since has moved on to work at Jake’s Towing, but he said his move into work with Cospolitch provided the motivation he needed to push himself in school and to prepare himself for his future occupation.
“It really was my first bigger job,” said Hebert. “I worked at Little Tokyo before that, then cleaning up and mopping at True Value … once I took that next step and began making more money, I realized this was what I want to do. I started having goals in life. It made me want to try harder in school.”
He also has a mentor in his family to guide him: Hebert’s father works at Monsanto as a process technician. While Hebert said pursuing his own career in process technology was an option, he opted to shift gears to instrumentation, believing there would be more opportunity out there for him.
“A lot of people are doing P-tech, it seems, so I figured that would be a lot of competition,” Hebert said. “I thought it would be easier to get a job pursuing this. With P-tech, maybe I can’t find a job anywhere. It’s not like a given set of skills you can apply anywhere … you can only go to a plant and use those skills. But with instrumentation, you can really be an electrician anywhere. I can open my own company or work for someone else. I thought it opened a few more doors.”
It could also provide him opportunity to spend more time doing things he enjoys in his own time.
“I like to hunt and fish,” the Luling resident said. “Instrumentation techs work four days a week, 10 hours a day, and you’re off every weekend,” he said. “That kind of leaned me more toward it.”
He said the outdoors give him a means to “appreciate everything God gives us.”
“We can go out, catch fish or hunt deer and eat it,” he said. “I don’t like to ever waste meat. I like being out there, either with a couple of buddies or even by myself and taking it all in.”
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