Manufacturing has changed, and a recent summer camp wanted to make sure that in-coming high school students got the message. And they are excited about possibly making a career out of making things.
Akron students designed, made and marketed their own school dog tags. The idea is to explore what modern day manufacturing is like. And five local companies, Anderson International, Excelsior Marking, Steere Enterprises, Akron Tool & Die and GOJO opened their doors to show them how it’s done.
“I thought wow, I would love to do one of these jobs when I get older. Because they don’t limit it to only men, like they used to,” said 8th grader Abigial Pietrocini.
“Those companies had a lot of their employees who interacted with the kids through out the tours,” said Jenny Stupica of Conxusneo.
“I learned that engineering isn’t only about building stuff. It is also designing stuff on computers,” said 8th grader, Karan Chen.
The 12 campers got to attend at no cost thanks to those companies and the Hass Foundation. Representatives from the University of Akron explained 3D printing pro-typing and people from Stark State College went over marketing plans they could use in making their dog tags. The students agreed the designing was the hardest part.
“You have to make all the lines to design it. So you have to simulate this and you have to redo it again if you mess up or anything like that,” said 9th grader, Ja’von Cooper.
The camp was so successful, planning for next year is already happening, to get more students excited about manufacturing.
“The machines are so high tech,” said Chen.
“Anybody can have a career in manufacturing. Whether they be male or female or what ever background they come from, or what skill set they have got,” said Stupica.
“I love this program and I hope I can do it again in the future,” said Pietrocini.