Join us as we celebrate young men and women forging a path in our industry. This powerful evening will spotlight resilience, skill, and transformation. The qualities that ignite progress and shape the future of metals.

📅 March 19, 2026

📍 Third Degree Glass Factory

⏰ 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM

🎤 Special Guest: Cynthia Walker, Career WayZ

Founder & CEO, Career WayZ | USDOL National Apprenticeship Ambassador

Cynthia Walker is a USDOL National Apprenticeship Ambassador and national leader in advancing Registered Youth Apprenticeship (RYA) through the National Youth Apprenticeship Initiative, with a deep focus on manufacturing workforce development. A pioneer of Missouri’s RYA movement, she helped develop the state’s Registered Youth Apprenticeship initiative in 2018 alongside the Missouri Apprenticeship Team.

As Founder and CEO of Career WayZ, Cynthia created the Youth Apprenticeship Accelerator (YAA)—an employer-driven, manufacturing-led model designed to bridge industry and education and mobilize tomorrow’s workforce today. Her approach disrupts the traditional education-driven system by placing manufacturers in the driver’s seat and accelerating the path from training to productive, on-the-job employment.

Under her leadership, over 100 RYA programs have launched nationwide, registering 1,800+ youth apprentices and engaging hundreds of employers. As a USDOL Apprenticeship Sponsor, Career WayZ created the nation’s first Apprenticeship Training and Development Specialist registered apprenticeship, with 10 journeyman completions and 18 active apprentices across Missouri and Illinois. Her Missouri-based programs account for over 60% of all active high school RYA participants statewide.

In 2025 alone, 14 manufacturing employers led the St. Charles County Youth Apprenticeship Accelerator and Ft. Zumwalt School District, placing 71 youth apprentices in manufacturing careers and earning Career WayZ the 2025 Talent Pipeline Initiative of the Year from the Economic Development Council of St. Charles County.

A graduate of William Jewell College (B.S. in Business Administration) and Trinity Theological Seminary (MBA), Cynthia’s greatest joy is her family—her husband of 30 years, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel & high school administrator and their two sons, both actively serving in the United States Air Force. The Walker family resides in the countryside outside Jefferson City, Missouri.