Tue May 30 10:13 pm 2023 in category Company news
Nokian Tyres Announces 2023 Nokian Tyres Scholars
Nokian Tyres is proud to support a pair of Rhea County High School graduates
DAYTON, Tenn. – Alyssa Barnes and Taylor McCoy aren’t afraid to stand out. Whether as high-achieving students, talented extracurricular participants or women in the STEM field, the Rhea County High School graduates are accustomed to being excellent.
That’s why Nokian Tyres is honoring them as its 2023 Nokian Tyres Scholars. Barnes and McCoy will each receive financial support from the company in their freshman year of college – Barnes at UT-Chattanooga and McCoy at Tennessee Wesleyan.
“I’m normally the only girl in my field,” said Barnes, who plans to major in electrical engineering at UTC. “I want to stand out and make a difference, and Nokian Tyres is doing that here in Dayton.”
Since elementary school, Barnes has enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together. Now, she plans to pursue her dream job of managing a power grid in a large city.
“I’ve job-shadowed for electrical engineering, and how it works behind the scenes fascinates me,” Barnes said. “It’s like a big puzzle.”
Nokian Tyres’ core value of sustainability resonates with Taylor McCoy, who plans to major in biology at Tennessee Wesleyan and launch a career as a wildlife biologist.
“I want to help animals in Southeast Tennessee’s conservation areas,” McCoy said. “It makes a huge difference to have people who are investing in my college career.”
McCoy’s childhood home in Rhea County is next to the forest, and at a young age she fell in love with the area’s rich array of wildlife and scenery. She balanced time in nature with a busy calendar as a standout ballerina, softball player, fisher and pageant queen.
“If you’re gonna do something, do it 110 percent,” said McCoy. “Juggling a bunch of different hobbies comes with great parents who are willing to go to the ends of the earth for me.”
Nokian Tyres is proud to support Barnes and McCoy’s collegiate journeys as part of the company’s Road to Sustainable Success, through which the global tiremaker:
- Supports education in Southeast Tennessee
- Provides scholarships to high-achieving students
- Serves as an advocate for sustainability in the region
Nokian Tyres is currently hiring 125 workers and doubling production at its Dayton Factory by 2024 as it seeks to reach full capacity of as many as four million tires per year.
In its three-plus years of operations in Dayton, Nokian Tyres has earned recognition for the factory’s safety and sustainability efforts. The tiremaker earned Company of the Year honors from the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association in 2021. It was the first Rhea County business to receive the prestigious Tennessee Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for Sustainable Performance. And its production building is the only tire manufacturing facility in the world to earn LEED v4 Silver certification.
For more information or to apply for jobs at the Dayton Factory, visit NokianTires.com/DaytonFactory.