Connor Wohlenhaus (’13) Builds Schools by Day, Roasts Coffee for a Cause by Night

When Connor Wohlenhaus graduated from Des Moines Christian in 2013, he didn’t imagine that he’d be roasting coffee for good causes in the future, but that’s exactly where he finds himself now. 

Wohlenhaus, a Senior Project Developer for Denovo Construction, has two bachelor’s degrees: one in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and another in Applied Mathematics from University of Northwestern St. Paul. As a project developer, he specializes in the K-12 school industry and gets to work with school board members and school administrators all across the state of Iowa. Wohlenhaus enjoys this role because he can help school districts, especially rural districts with fewer resources, maintain and improve their facilities, which enhances the learning environment for the next generation. 

In addition to his full-time job, Wohlenhaus also roasts coffee in his spare time and sells it out of his Beaverdale home under the LLC Noble Coffeeworks. 

He and his wife, Ashley, chose the name because their eventual goal as the business grows is to be able to use profits generated through the business to help support other non-profits—causes they deem "Noble.” They also use the tag line "Stay Noble" on the packages they send out. “It's an encouragement to lead a noble life that is honoring and glorifying to God,” Wohlenhaus says.

Wohlenhaus has fond memories of his time at DMC. He ran track and played basketball in high school and enjoyed the open-campus freedoms he and his friends—many of whom remain his closest friends to this day—enjoyed as seniors. 

When asked how DMC helped prepare him for his current career paths, he had this to say: “In high school, the math and science courses I took really challenged me, in a healthy way, and prepared me well for college and the real world. Nothing was spoon-fed. We had to figure out solutions for ourselves, which is the way it is in the college atmosphere and even more so in the professional world.”