My Experience Relocating to Indiana
"I relocated to Indiana in 2018 to be the Production Manager at NBS-IN.I am originally from Utah where I started my career with Nucor and met my beautiful wife, Stephanie then moved to South Carolina for several years before moving to Indiana. We found the perfect home in northern Fort Wayne in the suburbs located in an area tucked back by the woods, which makes it feel like there is nobody around in our mature neighborhood. If we wanted to be more rural or more suburban, both would have been just as easy to find. This area offers lots of different housing options from neighborhoods, to rural farm land, to city living.
Living in northern Fort Wayne affords us the ability to be close to work and close to downtown. We enjoy the many festivals in Fort Wayne during the summer season and the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo is one of the best zoos we have visited. During the colder months we take advantage of a membership to Science Central and the Art Museum. Also, it’s always fun to try the foods and restaurants in new areas. There are so many great places to try for family friendly dinners or a date night with my wife. Our two year old daughter loves going to the many different parks and splash pads or playing at one of three YMCA's in the area. As parents of two young children (Ages two and a newborn) we appreciate how easy it is to find groups of people that share our family dynamic and help us socialize and burn energy off of our toddler. The “Le Leche League” or “Hike it Baby” have been a great support system for my wife who stays home with our children. We also took our first family vacation since having kids over the Fourth of July and found a beautiful private lake with cabins close to home.
We have enjoyed our time in Indiana and know that we have many more years of memories to make here. We are happy to call Northeast Indiana our home and it’s a great place to raise our family."
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- Sean Dunwoody, NBS-IN Production Manager
"I recently relocated to Indiana to be the NBG Software Development Supervisor for the Design Tools team. I am originally from Tennessee where I started my career with Nucor at Kirby Building Systems as a Detailer. My husband transferred from Kirby Building Systems as a Detailer to NBS-IN as a Detailer. We were fortunate to find a home in a perfect area in Northwest Allen County in Fort Wayne. We are in a new housing addition in the best school district.
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Living just north of Fort Wayne has been a very different experience for our family. We are so close to the larger city which opens the doors to great shopping, new restaurants and fun activities. We have attended our first baseball game, the Fort Wayne Tin Caps. My family is looking forward to visiting the local zoo, Science Central and museums as the weather begins to cool down. There are lots of fun festivals scheduled in the surrounding communities that we are excited about too.
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Our three children, Savannah (11), Matthew (10) and Katelyn (8) are absolutely loving their new school along with the activities that are available. Savannah and Matthew have joined the band and are excited for their first field trip in a tour bus to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. Katelyn starts swimming lessons as a 2nd grader that are offered as part of her normal school schedule.
Recently we took a quick family trip to Saint Joseph, Michigan which was only about 2.5 hours from our home. Definitely something we would not have done had we lived in Tennessee. The area was absolutely beautiful; had sandy beaches, fun activities for the kids and of course the Great Lakes! We look forward to visiting again for a longer period of time. Savannah and I are looking forward to visiting Chicago in the coming months to visit the World’s Largest Starbucks Reserve Roastery that is set to open this fall.
The family as a whole looks forward to making new memories that would not have been possible had we not made the decision to relocate. We have enjoyed our time in Indiana thus far and know that we have many more years of memories to make here. We are happy to call Indiana our home and it’s a great place to raise our family."
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- Jennifer Case, NBG Software Development Supervisor
My husband, Jason, is the Engineering Manager at NBS-IN and we have been a part of the Nucor family since 2001. Shortly after graduating from college and getting married, we moved from our home state of Wisconsin to Indiana. This was an easy decision for us as Fort Wayne had everything we were looking for - a medium sized city with a “small town” feel which reminded us of where we grew up. We chose to live on the north side of town where we both had easy access to the highway and commutes for our jobs.
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After six years of being in Indiana, Jason had the opportunity to move to Utah to help with the startup of the NBS-UT division. It was a much harder decision to leave Indiana than it was Wisconsin as it had become our home as a couple and the relationships we built were like family to us. This was our second relocation, but this time with Nucor providing assistance in the move. Utah was exciting and we enjoyed the time we spent there. We were blessed with two beautiful girls and both experienced lots of personal and professional growth.
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But, as luck would have it, after four years in Utah, Jason had the opportunity for a manager position BACK IN INDIANA! We loved Utah, but were so excited to move back to Indiana. As we expected from Fort Wayne, we settled in great and found the most amazing neighborhood close to where we lived the first time. House hunting was easy since we knew we wanted to live in the Carroll School District, because it is ranked one of the top school districts in the state. We feel extremely blessed to be back in Indiana. Our daughters are now 9 and 11 years old and love their school, friends, and the activities they are able to do. Northeast Indiana has so much to offer for all ages and family styles. We are also close to other major cities and the local airport gives us lots of flexibility to travel and experience life to its fullest.
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- Angie Liegl
I started my career with Nucor in Waterloo about 25 years ago then moved on to broaden my engineering background and spent many years in a position outside of the metal building industry in Wisconsin. This summer, my family and I made the decision to relocate back to Indiana and I rejoined NBG. I am excited to be back with the leading company in the steel industry. Many teammates have welcomed me back, making it feel like a homecoming of sorts, and it has been great to be home again. I treasure this opportunity to contribute and am thankful that the team is bigger and the core values have not changed. There are even a few Packers fans here in Indiana!
Along with my wife, Sabrina, and our 16-year-old son Skyler, we all enjoy the small town feel this area offers with big town benefits. There are several very good school systems to choose from, with the added benefit of all the colleges in the area (Trine, Purdue, Concordia, St. Francis, plus Tech schools). Northeast Indiana also has very affordable housing options in a red-hot market. The area we chose to live in has most major retailers within a half hour drive, which is very convenient for us. The renewed investment in the downtown Fort Wayne area is very exciting to see and offers many entertainment options such as sports, fine arts, and outdoor activities.
Another aspect of North East Indiana we really like is the balance of outdoor and metropolitan activities it offers. We enjoy boating and fishing the lakes in Northern Indiana (Oliver Lake so far, and we plan to check out Mongo next). We are still getting situated in our new home, but we plan to attend a play at the Arts United Center soon. We love visiting parks in our area, especially dog parks where our golden doodle can run wild. We recently attended one of the areas’ multiple cultural events, the Johnny Appleseed festival which has grown considerably since we last attended 20+ years ago. I’m a golf nut and there are many local courses to choose from too. I recently played in the Nucor Fall Golf outing at Hidden Valley/Angola.
It has only been a few weeks since moving to Indiana, but we are adjusting well and know we will be in the swing of things in no time. This feels like home to us and we are happy we made the decision to come to Indiana.
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- John Stark, NBG Senior R&D Technician
The thought of moving is scary, mostly because of the fear of the unknown. Lots of questions come up that nobody can answer, such as: How will our family transition? How will my kids do with finding new friends? How will we do without having Grandma and Grandpa nearby? When I was a kid, we moved several times because of my Dad’s career. I moved when I was in grade school and middle school, and again as a young adult to start my career at Nucor in 1991. There was definitely some adjustments, but looking back, they helped lend perspective on what moving would be like with my own family.
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So fast forward several years into my Nucor career and I am about to take my wife and three children and embark on our first of three Nucor moves. My wife had never moved and was used to being in the Indiana area, along with her parents, brothers and sisters. This move was a challenge all in itself, but another challenge was taking the grandparents only grandkids at the time, and moving them 1400 miles away. The kids were at the young ages of 5, 2 and 1 at the time, which made it easier. The key to the move as adults was keeping an open mind, along with focusing on the positive parts of the move. Being in a new part of the country, meeting new people and so many more things, proved out to be one of the best decisions we ever made. Within months, we were confident that we had made the right choice.
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Ten years later, and we experienced our second Nucor move. This one was different. My children were now 15, 12 and 11. They had friends, they had sports, they grew up for 10 years in a place they knew as “Home.” As parents, all we could focus on was the kids and how this move would affect them. It hurt to watch their fear of the unknown. All three of our kids have different personalities and all handled the thought of moving differently. I had to trust that even though I was not going to be voted “Parent of the year,” that they were resilient and they were going to plug in wherever we went. And guess what? Several months after we moved, they had new friends and were engaged with sports and different activities. They had completely forgotten their fears from several months before.
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Our third move was only a few years after our second and placed us back in Indiana. This quick move placed our kids in four different schools in four years. Sounds tough, and it was. That said, those tough times were short and our family would not trade the experiences, or the growth we have had as a family, for anything. Our kids have become more independent and appreciative of each other. We have experienced different parts of this great country and made friends everywhere we went.
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The questions you ask yourself about moving are tough ones, and are scary because you don’t know the answers. My advice would be:
1) Stay open minded . If you have a pessimistic outlook, the transition will be difficult.
2) Focus on the positive parts of moving. There are some great places out there with GREAT people.
3) See past the short term pain your kids may have. Kids are resilient and always bounce back. While you are feeling bad about “making them move”, they will thank you for the experience later on when they are old enough to understand it.
- Mark VanDyken, NBS-IN General Manager
