STARBASE Duluth to host workforce breakfast on July 15

STARBASE Minnesota, Inc. Duluth will host a workforce development breakfast on Wednesday, July 15, at the 148th Fighter Wing Great Lakes Inn in Duluth, starting with arrival at 7:15 a.m. and networking and breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The program will follow with a panel, and attendees will also have a chance to meet STARBASE alumni.

The breakfast is designed to put community partners and industry partners in the same room as the program’s leaders. STARBASE Director Charity Johnson said the goal is to bring those groups closer together so they can identify workforce needs and support them through early STEM education and hands-on learning, part of what she described as “building the workforce of the future.”

That message fits a familiar pressure point in St. Louis County and across the Northland, where employers want steady access to skilled workers and schools are being asked to connect students to real pathways earlier. The flyer for the event says attendees will hear from top industry professionals about the future of the regional job market, which makes the breakfast more than a social gathering. It is meant to link classroom exposure with the labor needs shaping the Duluth area’s next hiring cycles.

STARBASE Duluth says it has served more than 19,000 students since opening in 2017, with each student receiving 25 hours of hands-on learning focused on real-world problem solving, STEM applications, and regional and local STEM careers. That scale matters because it shows the program is not starting from scratch. It is trying to extend an existing youth pipeline into a more deliberate conversation about recruitment, training, and retention.

The program’s location on the 148th Fighter Wing base, at 4680 Viper Street in Duluth, also shapes its identity. The Minnesota Air National Guard installation gives STARBASE a military setting that the Department of Defense STARBASE mission says is meant to expose youth to technological environments and positive civilian and military role models through 25 hours of hands-on instruction and activities. For Duluth, that means the pathway from summer camps to careers is being built inside an active base environment, not just in a classroom.

STARBASE Duluth has said it served more than 14,000 kids before later updating that total to more than 19,000 students since 2017, a sign of how quickly its reach has expanded. A 2025 profile of instructor Beth Peppersack, who led a coding camp, showed the same emphasis on direct engagement that now carries into the July 15 breakfast.