Learning by Doing: Meet Covia’s First New Graduate Trainees

Moving from the classroom into a full-time career provides a whole new learning experience. Classes and coursework create an important foundation, but it can be hard for a young professional to truly discover the right career path for them until they have direct experience on a worksite.

For Gavin Antonini, Nolan Joynt, and Favour Ordim, that transition is happening through Covia’s Structured Training & Experience Program (STEP). The trio are members of the program’s first new graduate trainee cohort, an 18-month program designed to give them firsthand experience with production, quality, safety, and other operations functions involved in the mining process. 

The goal of the program is to provide recent graduates with immersive, hands-on experience across the plant functions that keep Covia’s operations moving forward, helping them discover where their strengths and interests align while preparing them for a full-time role in their area of expertise. Although Gavin, Nolan, and Favour are participating in the same development program, their experiences are already taking different shapes.

Gavin Antonini: Expanding a Foundation in Mining at Marston

Of the three trainees, Gavin came to the program with the most direct mining experience. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Gavin studied mining engineering at Virginia Tech  and completed internships with operations in Pennsylvania and Virginia where he worked for organizations that primarily focused on aggregate operations, where processing often centered on crushing and sorting rock.

Gavin then joined Covia as an intern at the Marston, North Carolina plant. Marston gave him exposure to a more varied mineral-processing environment that includes wet processes, cyclones, float cells, conditioners, scrubbers, and density separators.

“It was a switch from what I was used to at my other internships,” Gavin said. “It was nice to utilize a lot of the classes I took while interning at Covia.”

That experience introduced Gavin to a different side of the industry and ultimately led him to accepting a full-time position as a new graduate trainee after graduation. He stayed at Marston, where he’s been learning the responsibilities of different operators in preparation for taking supervisor shifts. He has also gained experience with IFS, inventory, technical support, and other plant functions.

Gavin also calls out a few experiences with different teams that have long-term engineering and operational impact. He collaborated with Covia’s engineering team to evaluate a new mineral separator and conducted drone surveys to support Marston’s tailings planning.

As his foundational training progresses, Gavin is looking forward to getting even deeper into project work. Gavin can see opportunities in supervision, operations management, or engineering, depending on where his skills and future openings align. Just as important as the technical experience, however, are the people he has met along the way.

“One of the reasons I picked mining as an industry is because of the people,” Gavin said. “They’re very committed to maintaining the operation and take pride in what they do.”

While Gavin has built connections to the team at Marston, he’s also grown closer to the community around the plant. Gavin actively volunteers at a local animal shelter that takes in dogs from neighboring states and other regions and places them in new homes.

Nolan Joynt: Bringing a Hands-On Mindset to Hephzibah

Long before Nolan arrived at Covia’s Hephzibah Plant in Georgia, he was already comfortable taking equipment apart, figuring out how it worked, and putting it back together.

The Michigan native attended community college before continuing his education at Michigan Tech. He worked in a lab during that time, using PLC and CAD systems, repairing electrical equipment, fixing hydraulic and mechanical issues, and working as a machine technician at a woodshop equipped with industrial-scale machinery.

The mining industry, however, was a new frontier for Nolan. He was introduced to Covia at a career fair at Michigan Tech and was intrigued by the possibilities. He joined the new graduate trainee program and made the 16-hour drive to Covia’s Hephzibah, Georgia plant where he had to adjust to more than just the region’s heat and humidity. 

“I had never worked in the mining industry, and it was a big change from being a college student,” Nolan said. “I had a tremendous amount to learn just about the products we produce and the mining process.”

Despite the learning curve, the mechanically minded Nolan quickly pieced the various parts together. His early time at Hephzibah started with the fundamentals, working with the mine manager to learn:

• The materials mined at the site
• The different layers of kaolin clay in Hephzibah
• How those materials are blended
• How product specifications influence the process
• How the plant’s different processing areas work together

From there, his experience expanded quickly. Nolan spent time working through health, safety, and environmental responsibilities before moving into production supervision. He learned about permits and reporting, participated in an MSHA inspection, and worked alongside supervisors to understand how production priorities translate into decisions about shipping, rail cars, inventory, and daily plant activities.

If that sounds like a lot of information to take in, that’s correct. One particular lesson of how important each detail is to a plant came from something as simple as a whiteboard.

“The whiteboard in the supervisor’s office was terrifying at first,” Nolan said. “There are all these orders, names, and other details, and you have to learn. I made some mistakes, corrected them, and eventually figured it out.”

That willingness to figure things out has also created opportunities for Nolan to apply skills he already had before coming to Covia. Even though it wasn’t part of the new trainee program, Nolan spent time learning from an experienced PLC consultant at Hephzibah, observing electrical troubleshooting and eventually performing work under supervision himself. 

As Nolan moves through the program, he is particularly interested in maintenance. However, what excites him most is finding a specific area where he can develop deeper expertise.

“I feel like I’m doing all these important things and I’m learning,” Nolan said. “What I’ve learned in school is much different than what I’m doing now, and I’m looking forward to see where the program goes from here.”

That curiosity doesn’t stop at the plant. Outside of work, Nolan plays guitar and writes music, even building his own electric guitar and working with vintage tube amplifiers. He also spends time working on older cars and motorcycles, including a 1972 Triumph Bonneville 650 that he’ll occasionally drive to the Hephzibah plant.

Favour Ordim: Exploring Engineering and Operations at Roff

While Gavin entered Covia with previous mining experience and Nolan brought a strong background working with equipment, Favour joined the program to get a closer look at manufacturing.

A chemical engineering graduate from the University of Houston with a minor in energy and sustainability, Favour previously completed an internship in the semiconductor industry. When considering her next step, she wanted to explore other industries. That goal led her to the new graduate trainee program, where she believed mining could give her exposure to both the operational and engineering sides of manufacturing.

“I’m still very early in my career, and the program gave me the leverage to try and learn different roles,” Favour explained. 

At Covia’s Roff, Oklahoma plant, her exploration began in quality control. Favour spent time in the lab testing samples from different points in the process, including feed, dryer feed, stockpile, scrubber, coarse sand, and fine sand samples. The work gave her an early look at how plant operations connect to the requirements of customers receiving those products.

After working in quality control, Favour moved into health and safety. There, she worked with the plant EHS supervisor reviewing permits, corporate policies, and procedures. She also had the opportunity to observe an MSHA inspection.  

Her experiences throughout the Roff plant have introduced her to a range of projects, including supporting process-assessment data and developing a new type of shift report in Smartsheet.

One particular highlight was when Favour earned her drone certification. Before joining Covia, she wasn’t aware of the certification requirements involved in operating drones for work. Travis Smith, Plant Manager at the Roff plant, recommended that she become certified so that she could use it to capture photos and video of the site, and she gained another technical skill she can carry into future assignments.

After spending time with operations, health and safety, and other areas of Covia’s Roff operation, Favour is excited to apply more of her engineering background in a maintenance role. The ability to experience all these different functions gives Favour exactly what she was hoping the program would provide: opportunities to understand a part of the operation before deciding whether it is where she wants to focus her career.

Outside of work, Favour is an active sports fan who likes to keep moving. She dubbed herself a soccer girly who loves watching the sport and particularly enjoyed the recent World Cup. She’s also a big basketball fan and enjoys walking and running whenever she can.

Three Experiences, One Starting Point

Nolan, Gavin, and Favour may share in the same trainee program, but they’re not following identical paths. The new graduate training program is designed to help young professionals find their own path while developing meaningful relationships, one phase at a time.

For all three trainees, a lot of that discovery still lies ahead. Each new rotation, responsibility, and relationship is giving them a clearer understanding of the work they enjoy, the skills they want to develop, and the careers they want to build.