High School Sophomore Lands Rare Jewelry Apprenticeship at Waldo Jewelers

Waldo Jewelers Provides Rare Apprenticeship Opportunity to High School Student

Zella Dodge, a 16-year-old sophomore at Shawnee Mission East, is setting a model for students keen to kickstart a career in jewelry design. She is the proud inaugural student hired for a paid apprenticeship offered by the co-owners of Waldo Jewelers, Michael Marentes and Jeffrey Penland.

Creating a Talent Pipeline

Marentes and Penland, both graduates from Shawnee Mission East High School, pooled their skills and passion to open Waldo Jewelers in 2010. The jewelry shop specializes in crafting custom bridal designs, conducting all processes in-house. Being a niche business with a highly particular set of processes, the owners realized the importance of fostering talent with the requisite skills and knowledge early on.

“By getting a kid from that school, we know what they know,” Marentes remarked, emphasizing the value of aligning early academic training with industry needs.

A Dynamic Apprentice

Zella Dodge, despite her fervor for a spectrum of disparate subjects ranging from physics to law, was drawn to the apprenticeship at Waldo Jewelry. She began with seemingly humble tasks like sorting gemstones and cleaning jewelry, but her curiosity was duly rewarded. Now, she owns an intrinsic appreciation for the fine gems she handles and can identify their shapes, sizes, and reasons for their valuation.

She is looking forward to honing her skills further through art and jewelry classes in the coming academic year. Working at Waldo Jewelers has equipped her with both basic knowledge and excitement about her prospective field of study.

Future Prospects

The owners of Waldo Jewelers have recommended the Texas Institute of Jewelry at Paris Junior College for continuing her education if Dodge chooses to persist in the field of jewelry design. Marentes himself and two other team members completed their education at the same institute – a testament to their confidence in its curriculum. They attribute their collective success in the industry primarily to their hands-on training programs and technical skills, all gained outside the conventional framework of a four-year college degree.

Stepping up the drive for hands-on technical programs, Bridget Morrison, who oversees marketing for Waldo, mused, “It’s not just our industry but others (that benefit). We get to come to work every day and be creative. We listen to rock music and make a profit.”

Value of Technical Skills

While the team at Waldo Jewelers appreciates and enjoys its work environment, the essence of their success resides in the highly technical skills. These include the ability to work with raw gold and the much more challenging platinum, alloying metals, operating computer-aided design (CAD) software, understanding how to use 3-D printers, and the complex science needed to heat and cast pieces.

Despite her age, Dodge has initiated her journey into understanding the tedious yet rewarding process of jewelry making. She’s gaining insight into the immense amount of time, effort, and technical expertise needed to customize each jewelry piece.

Support Local Artists

Through her experience at Waldo Jewelers, Dodge has come to appreciate the immense value that local artisans bring to the community. “Support local artists that put time and effort into your piece. It’s just a better environment than a mall or random store,” she signs off, words that echo wisdom well beyond her 16 years.