Jayden Zinne and Tyler Boehm have what some of their classmates don't: a job in North Dakota.

Usually people who want jobs like theirs go out of state for experience before coming to North Dakota for a job.

"It's a relief," Boehm said. "It takes a lot of pressure off. That's what I was looking for. I wanted to stay in North Dakota for the rest of my life."

They are in the mechanical maintenance program at Bismarck State College, a new program that will graduate its first degree students Friday. Come Monday after graduation, they start jobs at Minnkota Power Cooperative Milton R. Young Station near Center, where they were hired as maintenance mechanics.

The BSC program trains workers to maintain equipment in power plants, as well as factories and other businesses that require someone to work on items like pumps, automated machinery and motors. Students learn to weld, take apart pumps and work with pneumatic devices among other skills.

"I've always been interested in mechanical stuff,"Zinne said.

He also was attracted to the field by the job prospects. It pays well and there will be more job openings as people retire. Zinne has past experience in an electrical co-op doing vehicle maintenance, and helping his father overhaul pumps.

He and Boehm had internships last summer at the Minnkota plant. Then the company came to them when it looked for two mechanics, he said.

The job with Minnkota is just what Boehm wanted. Besides staying in North Dakota, he wanted a job in a power plant.

"I always wanted to do power plant something," he said.

He went to BSC and tried the process power plant program, but it wasn't for him. Then his dad told him about the maintenance technology program. He gave it a try, and he liked it. The internship sealed it.

"There was always something new to do,"he said.

Graduation is Friday at the Bismarck Civic Center. The ceremony starts at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday night, the alumni association will recognize its alumni of the year at a dinner reception. The alumni of the year are David Farnsworth of Bismarck and Cheryl (Senger) Elsbernd of Woodbury, Minn. Chad and Julie Ellingson of St. Anthony will receive the alumni association's rising star award.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)