Area college students have picked up academic honors, a bachelor’s degree and a summer internship at Spangler Candy Company in Bryan.
Julia Dickinson of West Unity, an electrical engineering major at Trine University, spent her summer surrounded by Dum-Dums, Marshmallow Circus Peanuts and Sweethearts as an intern at Spangler.
Coming out of her freshman year, Dickinson had a hard time finding an internship close to home. The only two area manufacturers she found that offered internships required more experience than she had, and she was not selected after interviewing with Steel Dynamics Inc. for an internship at its Butler, Ind., plant.
Her father remembered that Spangler offers an internship program that is not widely advertised. Dickinson connected with Kyle McClellan, an electrical engineer and project engineer at Spangler, and was eventually accepted.
Her three main projects covered programmable logic controller coding and touchscreen design, drawing and revising electrical schematics, and learning to design electrical panels. She also helped other departments, from scanning and printing user manuals to delivering candy from the plant to the Spangler Candy World store.
“Every time I walked on the floor, the smiles and waves I received from the workers were amazing,” she said. “Spangler changed my outlook on what factory work can look like.”
Dickinson said she would love to continue working in the candy industry but is looking forward to exploring other options when she attends the Society of Women Engineers national conference in November.
Also from West Unity, Bryce Buehrer earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University in Flint, Mich. Buehrer graduated during the university’s 2026 commencement ceremony June 20 at Atwood Stadium. The university awarded 347 bachelor’s degrees.
Lucy Vashaw of Bryan, a student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, was named to the spring 2026 Dean’s List. Students must complete at least 12 graded degree credits in the semester, and each UW-Madison school or college sets its own GPA requirement.
Allyson Derck of Montpelier and Landon O’Dell of Wauseon were named to the spring 2026 Dean’s List at Ohio University in Athens. The list recognizes undergraduates who earn a GPA between 3.5 and 3.999 while attempting at least 12 credit hours for letter grades. About 6,800 Ohio University undergraduates qualified this spring.
Andrew Scherer, also of Wauseon, was named to the summer 2026 President’s List at Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss. The honor requires a 4.0 GPA with a full course load of at least 12 semester hours.
Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H., named six area students to its summer 2026 President’s List: Alec Feldhaus and Abraham Perez of Wauseon, Alyssa Schilling and Levi Gauden of Montpelier, Angela Hindes of Pioneer and Katelyn March of Stryker. The list honors full-time undergraduates who earn a 3.7 grade-point average or higher for the term.
Information provided directly by colleges.