Gentex partnered with Grand Rapids Community College for a certificate program, allowing Gentex employees to take five courses for free, totaling 15 credits. Employees can take the knowledge they learn from classes and apply it directly to their work. Gentex is investing in their employees, creating an environment in which people want to come to work and improve on their skills.
This is a fairly new program, as both Ryan Searles and Ron Storteboom are the first Gentex employees to ever complete the program. Storteboom, Laboratory Development Engineer II, started the program in Fall 2024. He took a math class and a pneumatics class, receiving the GRCC certificate for the Gentex Program.
“I guess we were the guinea pigs as a lot of the professors would say, ‘This class is all new because of Gentex,’” Storteboom said.
Before these classes, he never fully understood all the engineering that’s involved with equipment, such as sizing an air compressor. “I learned a lot about the science behind a pneumatics system—not just how to connect valves to cylinders,” he said. “We learned the volume of air required to make a cylinder do work and how to size compressors based on the total work being done in a system.”
Storteboom is proud to be one of the first people to complete this program.
“It feels great to get over the first hurdle,” Storteboom said, “It’s been a busy year taking classes in the fall and winter, I even took a couple classes in the summer semester. I already started another class for the Fall 2025 semester.”
Storteboom is an ambitious learner, which is why is he was intrigued by the announcement about the certificate program. As Storteboom began his classes, his two biggest goals were to learn as much as he could while meeting new people.
“My advice would be to just jump in and try a couple classes,” Storteboom said. “It does take some time; but Gentex and GRCC have this program running very well. You aren't going to receive a tuition bill and your textbooks are covered.”
