EDWARDSBURG — One Edwardsburg native is hoping to teach students the value of hard work this summer.

Purdue University student and Edwardsburg High School graduate Josh McMann, 19, is currently interning with Chicago-based company College Works Painting. Through his internship, McMann is trained by College Works Painting to run his own interior and exterior painting business, including hiring painting contractors. Now, he is looking to hire Edwardsburg area high school students to work under him this summer, both painting and marketing.

“I have to find my own jobs and hire my own employees,” McMann said, leafing through a binder full of his business plans inside a downtown Niles coffee shop. “I want to hire local high school kids to work for me. They will be painting houses for me, and I will be paying them just like any normal job, and we will be doing work anywhere around here, whether its Granger, Edwardsburg, you name it. If we can drive there, we will do it.”

Though McMann is not currently looking to work in the painting or business sector once he graduates (he is studying engineering), he said he was drawn to the internship with College Works Painting because he believed the skills he would learn from it would apply to several areas of his life.

“I just thought this would be a really good experience,” he said. “Even though I don’t want to be a salesman when I am older, sales are a part of everyday life. I just wanted the chance to interact with new people, meet new people and grow my skill set as a person. Even if I go in a completely different direction from sales, I just want to be able to communicate with people as well as possible. Even if I am pitching an idea at an engineering firm, that is the same as selling you know a paint job. These skills will come in handy.”

While McMann wants to grow his own skill set, but he also hopes to help the students working under him to learn valuable lessons and skills that will help prepare them for life after high school.

“I want them to be able to put this on their resumes,” he said. “I want to take care [of the students] and provide a lot of jobs. … I want them to learn hard work. If they work really hard, they can achieve so much. I want to show that work is not something to dread, and you can still have fun as long as you get your work done, and you do it the right way.”

As the summer season draws closer, McMann said his anticipation to get out into the community to market his business and paint houses grows.

“I’m just really excited,” he said. “I want to grow a successful business, and I believe we can do it.”