Every student with the Paton-Churdan School District recently got to experience the life of a semi-truck driver.

P-C Guidance Counselor Libby Towers tells Raccoon Valley Radio they worked with Megan Kruse with Iowa Central Intermediary Network to bring in the Iowa Motor Truck Association (IMTA) on Monday for everyone to drive a big rig through a simulator. Towers notes IMTA wanted to test the program with a K-12 school district to expose kids at all grade levels.

“We’re fortunate to be one of the first schools to kind of try this simulation. IMTA’s main goal is just to start introducing kids, you can’t do it if you can’t see it. So getting kids out in the truck, they get a chance to drive a simulation, but then also for our younger children, especially, they just get the chance to get into the truck and see what it’s all about.”     

Towers describes the simulation program, of which she also got to experience first hand.

“So the simulation is just about two minutes and they seem to have a cycle of different scenarios that they run through. With each simulation, for the most part you’re driving, a lot of it is just really being aware of the other vehicles around you, or people that are running out, or animals. I did try it, just the technology with it was pretty neat, but I did not do so well. I’m going to have to stick with school counseling.”

Representatives with IMTA also talked to the students about other areas of the trucking industry such as logistics, administration and mechanics as a way to show them of the opportunities that are out there.