April 11th, 2008 by admin
Liz Loney-Cline, President and Owner of RSI, announced this week that RSI provided over $93,000 in scholarships to U.S. Armed Forces veterans, people working in the industry, and RSI employee family members. This is one of the many things that make RSI a great school. From the top management there is a philosophy of investing in people’s lives to help them achieve their goals and contribute to the industry. There is a feeling of family here. Because that is the attitude at the highest levels, it permeates through to the staff, faculty, and comes out in the training and quality of education.
Here is RSI’s mission statement and philosophy directly from the school catalog:
The mission of The Refrigeration School, Inc. is to assist adult learners in development of the skills and knowledge necessary, and to support their personal goals, for employment and professional growth in the HVAC/R and Electrical Technologies fields.
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March 18th, 2008 by admin
Sometimes words are just not necessary. That is the case with today’s blog. See the attached .pdf file. RSI Graduate Coy Johnson’s Announcement
Coy told our Career Development Director Rick Rusch today,” when I came to RSI I just came to get a job. Now I have a career. I owe a lot to RSI.”
March 7th, 2008 by admin
Last Saturday we held an open house here at RSI. It was “RSI Spring Training Fever” and it centered around of course, spring training. Because the weather is so good here this time of year, compared to everywhere else, Arizona is spring training central every year. So, we thought we would celebrate with an open house.
The open house went great! We had more people than we have had in the past and many of them were impressed by the training and facilities. We had instructors here to help explain the training and the industry, students to demonstrate the hands-on training, Admissions Representatives to explain the courses, and a Financial Aid Representative to answer tuition planning questions.
One of the many cool things about RSI is that the employees, faculty, and students are excited to share information about the school and the industry. A new career can change your life and the way you see your future. A career like HVAC/R opens up unlimited opportunities worldwide. Anyone that has been involved in it for very long understands the power and confidence this can give you to accomplish what you want for yourself and your family. This is no small thing. Many are swayed by the economy or what other people want because they have not taken the time to pursue a career that will last.
A couple of days ago I read an article http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080305/bs_nm/markets_stocks_dc_39 that stated the service industry is still going strong, with only small losses, in spite of the weakening economy The fact is, people still need things done even if the price of gas is over $3 a gallon. In the East, they need heat. In the West, they need A/C. Everyone needs refrigeration. Just think about what we would be like without these things. The need will always be here, and the need to fix these systems will always exist. They are no longer conveniences, but have become necessary give the scope of their use.
As we said in our open house, “It’s your game to win!” Come and see us sometime!
February 8th, 2008 by admin
You won’t believe what I was standing in yesterday! I actually walked through an ice tank that holds 1.1 million gallons of water (yes that’s million). A team of us walked right through the tank on a catwalk during a tour of Northwind Phoenix, but let me start at the beginning.
Northwind Phoenix is a plant that basically makes ice. So what, you say? Ice is no big thing. You do it in your freezer every day, right? Wrong! This plant makes lots and lots of ice. About 3 – 5 million pounds of ice per night during peak seasons. No, not the kind of ice for drinks (that would be a lot of drinks!). This ice is used to cool the Chase Ballpark and 25 other buildings in the downtown area. This process is critical to keeping the energy usage and costs down for cooling something so large with over 48,000 people in it.
For those who haven’t heard or experienced it, Phoenix gets hot. Really, really, hot. Temperatures have been known to reach over 120° in the worst of the summer. This is when baseball is in its prime and people are flocking to the stadiums to see the Arizona Diamondbacks. Would any of those people be willing to come if the temperatures inside of the ballpark were over 120°? Even 100° or 90° would be pretty uncomfortable and people would likely stay at home and watch it from their cool houses. Not only that, but high heat exposure can cause medical problems and dehydration. The players wouldn’t even be willing to play in those conditions. Cooling is critical.
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January 29th, 2008 by admin
Well, it certainly is a new year, filled with new and exciting things. RSI has been abuzz with the anticipation of changing over to a bright new shiny database. This is where all of the information about our students and graduates is kept so that we can help them have the best educational and employment seeking experience possible.
I can hear your thoughts now, “so what’s that got to do with me going school?”. Plenty! RSI has spent over 43 years providing quality education training and producing thousands of certified HVAC/R technicians. The service we give our students has always been the main goal. This begins when someone makes an initial contact for information and never really ends for our graduates. We have taken it on as a lifetime commitment. Graduates from 20 or 30 years back have been known to call us frequently, many of them to hire new graduates to fill positions in their own companies.
When RSI makes steps to upgrade our technology, it is with the students, graduates, and employers in mind. Recently RSI Owner and President Liz Cline exclaimed, “this new system is top of the line and will take on a lot of the manual work we are doing, so that we can spend more time helping our students.” That attitude permeates from the top down. Every department has the students and graduates as their primary concern.
I often wonder how many colleges and universities can say that? We have a saying around here that goes, “we succeed when our graduates succeed”. That might sound a little cliché, but if you think about it, it makes sense. In order for our reputation to be what it is, we have to produce graduates that know what they are doing in the industry. They need to have enough knowledge that the employers are confident they can take as little time as possible training them so they can put them out on their own. If we didn’t do that, our graduates wouldn’t get hired. We also have a very high referral rate which is also evidence of our quality service. Even our motto is “RSI Trains You for Success”!
Everything we do is with the student in mind, from new technology to faculty training. The staff and faculty work hard to make sure the students and graduates have the best resources to be a success in the career they have chosen.
