Gold Rush's Dave Turin LBCC Speech

Contributed by: Discovery Channel

With microphone in hand, Dave Turin advocated the need for associate degrees to replenish the workforce.

Dave Turin, from Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush" series, spoke at LBCC on Thursday, Feb. 16, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., in the Forum room 104.

Turin was dubbed "Dozer Dave" in "Gold Rush," and about 80 to 100 people attended his speech.

Turin, talking with his hands like his true Italian self, said, "Our duty is to... give back to our communities and community colleges."

"We have a shortage in skilled people who will do the work [for trade jobs]," said Turin.

Turin is concerned that there is too much emphases on four-year college, and that too many end up in debt without jobs.

Turin graduated from Portland State University with a bachelor in Civil Engineering, and was a college football star.

Turin describes his education as the "School of Hard Knocks" and that he believed going to a two-year trade course might have done him more good than a four-year degree.

Turin got into the mining business because his father owned the business Mt. Hood Rock Jim Turin and Sons Inc. Turin and his three brothers, Dan, Dennis and Doug bought the business from their father because they didn't want their father to be their boss. Turin soon realized that the new company wasn't what he ultimately wanted. Turin met Todd Hoffman, the head of the "Gold Rush" team, before Hoffman went up to Alaska to find gold and start filming.
 

In June 2010, the year after meeting, Hoffman needed Turin to fix some of his mining equipment. Turin went to Alaska and joined the team.    

Turin explains that while on the job the men would pray.

"We're men of faith, we believe there's a God," said Turin. "The minute you say you're a Christian, you're marked for good or bad."

With this in mind, Turin was amazed that so many people had watched the series.

"We always put things back," Turin said, especially in the jungle of Guyana.

In Guyana, the crew was able to show the local miners how to mine without using mercury, so that the people wouldn't get poisoned.

After the 30-minute speech, Turin took questions from the audience. The audience asked Turin general questions about the TV show, and why he advocated for trade school.

In one of the questions about diminishing work ethic, Turin answered "I have faith in young people, then he shared his belief in the need to teach kids work ethic from day one.

Student Casey Hoff, one of the audience members, stated that they were at the speech, "Because we watched the series since it came out" and that he had "Found out about [the speech] on the LB website."

David Becker, the dean of Business Applied Technology and Industry, explained that the speech was a part of the Career Technical Education (CTE) signing day. The signing day allows students to sign up for the CTE program. During this two-year program, students will learn a trade, and most likely have a job as soon as they graduate.

"There is such a void in trained work force," said Becker.

This program aims to help to fill it, and the event was well-known.

"People flew here from all across the country," said Becker.

Turin is advocating programs like this all over the United States because he wants to solve the problem of the blue collar work force shortage.
 

As the former "Gold Rush" star advised: "You don't need a four-year education to make a lot of money."

At a Glance:

Topic: Dave Turin LBCC speech.
Who: Dave Turin and LBCC's CTE program administrators.
When: Feb. 16, 2017
Where: Forum room 104