ASI Southeast Work-Based Learning Student Named Georgia Student of the Year

Governor's Workforce Summit award caps a nine-year manufacturer-school partnership that now supplies one in ten of ASI's Georgia employees

TOCCOA, Ga., Oct. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Connor Wallace, a senior at Stephens County High School and a Work-Based Learning student at ASI Southeast, has been named the 2026 Georgia Work-Based Learning Student of the Year. He received the award on September 24 at the Governor's Workforce Summit in Atlanta, where he was recognized by Governor Brian Kemp. Wallace won the county-level award before advancing to the statewide honor.

Georgia's work-based learning programs enrolled 32,518 students across 24,582 employers in the most recent school year, according to the Georgia Department of Education.

ASI Southeast manufactures commercial toilet partitions and lockers for ASI Global Partitions and ASI Storage at its plant in Toccoa, roughly 90 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Two years, zero absences

Wallace joined ASI Southeast in December 2024, shortly after turning 16. He has recorded zero absences, zero tardies and zero early departures since, earning the company's 2025 Perfect Attendance Award. As of August 19, he had completed 2,534 Work-Based Learning hours and is on pace to pass ASI's program record of 3,100 before graduation.

His contribution has gone well beyond attendance. During the Locker Business Unit's continuous improvement competition, Wallace redesigned the UPS staging process, eliminating roughly 158,720 employee steps per year, close to 80 miles of walking, and producing an estimated $5,000 in annual savings. The project won the unit's "Most Steps Saved" award.

He was then selected as one of five employees to represent the Locker Business Unit in ASI's 2026 company-wide continuous improvement championship. That team's project delivered approximately $35,000 in annual savings and won the competition outright. Wallace was named Best Presenter.

He now serves as ASI's Work-Based Learning Team Captain, acting as liaison between the company, participating students and Stephens County High School. He has led plant tours, represented ASI at job fairs, helped train employees, and taken on responsibilities in production and quality inspection.

"Connor's defining qualities are his respect, dependability, and ability to make the people around him better," said Clint Frady, Business Unit Manager at ASI Southeast. "He earns opportunities through consistency, masters new responsibilities, and then helps others succeed. Connor is a tremendous example of what can happen when a motivated student is given an opportunity to contribute in a real workplace and chooses to make the most of it."

A program built for the labor market it sits in

ASI's Work-Based Learning program was developed by Stephen Wallace, General Manager of ASI Southeast and Connor's father, in partnership with Stephens County Schools. Students join the plant during the school year and return across successive summers, with a defined path to full-time employment after graduation.

That structure is a deliberate response to conditions in northeast Georgia, where manufacturers compete for a limited pool of qualified skilled labor. Rather than recruiting against the shortage, ASI develops workers within it, building familiarity with the plant, the equipment and the culture years before a hiring decision is made.

The program runs in collaboration with the county school system rather than as an internal-only initiative, with coordinators, credit hours and a structure the school recognizes and students can build on.

Nine years in, it has hired 67 students from three area high schools, beginning with four. Graduated participants have worked more than 57,736 hours and earned over $1 million in wages, nearly all of it spent in the local economy. Approximately 80 percent remain with ASI after graduation and about half stay three years or longer. In nine years, one participant has been involuntarily terminated.

Today, 32 percent of the operations workforce at ASI Southeast's 900 Plant came through Work-Based Learning, as did roughly 10 percent of ASI's employees across Georgia.

About ASI Group

ASI is the world's leading manufacturer of commercial toilet partitions, washroom accessories, lockers, and visual display products. ASI Global Partitions and ASI Accurate Partitions are the company's partition divisions. With operating units and offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, and China, ASI serves architects, building owners, and contractors in more than 50 countries.

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SOURCE ASI Group