Hundreds of Mahoning County students learn about manufacturing field

By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI

jgrzelewski@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Kara Crawford’s eyes lit up as she watched a demonstration in Mahoning County Career & Technical Center’s welding lab.

The lesson on how to assemble an air pump and discussion of what skills an engineer needs was perfect for the Canfield fourth-grader, as she wants to be an engineer when she grows up.

“It was really cool and it’s good to learn about how to build stuff,” she said.

Kara was one of about 600 fourth- through sixth-graders from several Mahoning County schools who visited MCCTC Monday for the Cutting Edge Manufacturing Event. The event was organized in partnership with OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology and the Mahoning Valley Manfacturers Coalition.

The aim of the event was to introduce students to manufacturing. The manufacturing industry is experiencing a shortage of workers coming into the field, an issue that led the MVMC to form in 2011.

Monday’s event is just one way the coalition, OH WOW! and MCCTC are addressing this workforce issue. All three entities work together on programming to better educate students about opportunities in the manufacturing field.

“We feel that it’s really important to expose students at a young age to manufacturing,” said Jessica Cene, MCCTC marketing/job placement coordinator. “There is such a need out there. We get calls every day for welding and machining jobs.”

Monday’s event featured a presentation by Ralf Urbach, OH WOW! director of education and outreach. Students also got to visit aviation, advanced manufacturing, welding and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) labs at MCCTC.

Urbach talked to students about the importance of qualities such as good communication, listening skills, focus, working as a team, critical thinking and leadership.

Students were challenged to put those skills to the test by breaking into small groups and building the tallest tower they could with a set of provided materials: cardboard, tape, dry spaghetti, marshmallows and packing peanuts.

Canfield fourth-grader Emily Glista focused intently on the tower she was building with two other students.

“I like to build,” she said.