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Teen of the Week: Warren High School senior Aden Strahler pursues career in electrical work

By Jeffrey Saulton 4 min read

VINCENT -- For Aden Strahler, curiosity about the ins and outs of electrical wiring led to a career path he hopes will land his dream job as an electrician in an industrial setting.

Strahler is a senior at Warren High School and the Washington County Career Center, where he is a full-time student in the center's electrical program.

"Mainly we are looking at residential electricity and how to wire houses and commercial construction," he said. "In our classes we have done some commercial and some industrial with motor controls."

Strahler said what they do is a combination of in-class and outside projects.

"That is mainly people who work at or go to the Career Center, they will bring us broken things to work with, and we also do repairs in the school for items we are certified to repair," he said. "We installed the fans at the school recently; we have rewired outlets in the buildings.

"We have someone who is installing a three-phase panel right now; they have to run it from one end of the building to the other."

Strahler said in addition to the fan installation, he has rewired a classroom and worked on a generator for the instructor in the electrical program.

After graduation, Strahler said he is interested in working as an industrial electrician.

"I'm looking heavily into the industrial electrical program so I can work at plants more," he said.

"I can start the path to it in high school with early placement and I can also take an adult education class next semester if I want to," Strahler said. "I can't go into the industrial side at a plant yet. I don't have enough experience for that."

At this point, Strahler said he is not sure where he will go next.

"I will be going to adult education at the Career Center or Washington State college," he said.

Strahler said he has had experience with the programs the Career Center offers.

"I've gone more toward the blue collar side and not areas like graphic design or digital marketing," he said. "Electrical is something that has interested me, and this is the best way I have to get into it."

Strahler said he was not influenced to choose the electrical program by any one person, but mainly by the things he likes to do.

"I like building things, and I like building houses," he said. "I like working on cars, and electrical was something I didn't have experience with, and I wanted to know more."

At Warren High School, Strahler said he enjoyed shop classes where he could build things.

"I took some graphic design classes to learn how to use computers," he said. "Mainly the elective classes I enjoyed."

However, Strahler said the Career Center gives students more flexibility in their studies.

"At the Career Center, we are a lot more free, I would say, to do what we want," he said. "It is a lot more laid back, less school work and more practical experience.

"We have a morning agenda where we might go out to other classrooms and work on projects or just stay in the classroom doing book work all day."

At Warren, Strahler was a member of the football team and the wrestling team, where he qualified for the state tournament four years in and finished with a fourth-place medal at the 2025 tournament. He is also a member of the National Technical Honor Society.

Jeffrey Saulton can be reached at jsaulton@newsandsentinel.com

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