Several dozen teachers, administrators, educators, counselors and other school personnel climbed aboard a quartet of Cardinal buses Tuesday afternoon and ventured to four key manufacturing facilities from Benton Harbor to Bridgman in the first ever Manufacturing & Schools Working Together Tour and for some it was an absolute eye opener. Organizers from the industrial sector couldn’t be happier because the entire goal of the tours was exactly that — to open some eyes to the myriad options for students beyond a 2 or 4 year collegiate track.
Patrick Breen is a prime example of the success of the day. Breen is Principal and Career & Technical Education Director at River Valley High School in Harbor Country. He sent me a note saying, “I wanted to say I think it was a great step in the right direction connecting educators and industry leaders to support local manufacturing and provide solid career pathways. In a school like River Valley, many students do not envision themselves at a 4 year college but do not know what options are out there.”
Breen was among the men and women who ventured into facilities at Edgewater Automation in St. Joseph, Maximum Mold’s Max-3 in Benton Harbor, Eagle Technologies on Red Arrow Highway in Shoreham and Apollo Seiko industries in Bridgman.
He says, “Tonight we tapped into some amazing opportunities to gain access to careers that support lifelong learning while equipping students with the means to achieve the American dream. Students are often intimidated by more education and long term goal planning after high school, so it was great to have local examples of how skilled trades have such a high demand and are willing to go above and beyond to train and support young people through apprenticeships and internships.”
At the Edgewater Automation high tech tour, Terry Tucker from Bridgman, a lifelong resident of the region explained that he was just like the students Breen talks about. He graduated in 2006, then joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and wanted to pursue his education upon his return home, but grew disenchanted with the work load at Grand Valley State University, saying, “It was difficult and just didn’t add up. I wanted to make a living.” During the Christmas break of 2014 he visited with his brother-in-law who was working for Edgewater at their plant in South Carolina, who suggested, “Come and help us build machines.”
Tucker says it all fell into place as he started his apprenticeship, calling it, “The best decision I ever made.” He adds, “I had no idea there was such an option or I would have done it right out of high school. It’s a privilege to work here, and now I encourage others who want to be unique and do things like this to follow that dream.”
Tucker told educators about the high tech world, saying, “It’s growing, it’s the future. Things are ever-changing.” He started his job at well above minimum wage and got raises along the way and had his schooling completely covered by the company. Recently he got married, bought a house, and says with a huge grin, “I have no student debt!” Best of all, he gets to see his ideas come to fruition every day.
Breen says, “Our job as educators is to learn as much as we can about the pathways available to our kids and cater our programs to fill the gaps here in Berrien County so our local talent grows deep local roots to better this community. My students at River Valley need to learn more about opportunities right out of high school which will inspire them to participate more in local CTE programs to prepare them for a job in skilled trades.” The River Valley administrator says, “Tonight we began to build that bridge and now need to take steps in crossing the bridge between schools and the job force. It was amazing to see the innovation and advanced manufacturing right in our own backyard!”
At Maximum Mold’s Max-3 facility on Urbandale in Benton Harbor, President & Owner David LaGrow says, “I think this is awesome. The teachers letting the students know that there are other things out there other than a four year degree, and letting them know how good our industry can be for them financially and the longevity of a career is very important.” Several flights of teachers and administrators patrolled LaGrow’s shop floor and he says, “I think it went really well, I think they had some really good questions about disconnects with K-12 to the employers and what their kids can expect, just some really good questions.”
Edgewater President & Founder Rick Blake says, “Our people take other people’s ideas and turn them into something that can actually work. We do prototype equipment. One of a kind. We never build the same machine twice in many instances.” He says, “Most of our people have either vocational skills to either make parts or assemble the parts with our equipment, or we have a design group that designs things mechanically or electrically for our clients.”
Blake, who himself started at $3.75 an hour as a machine builder’s helper at Weldun International in Bridgman in 1978, moved on in 1990 to help a company called Dane Systems get started in Stevensville, but ten years later developed the overwhelming itch to establish his own firm, starting Edgewater in 2001. He says he took at $50,000 pay cut, mortgaged his house to the hilt and took a leap of faith. Now, he’s having “great fun building all sorts of equipment all over the place.” His company does work internationally.
LaGrow and his partner and wife Cindy loved having the chance to showcase to the teachers. David says, “These teachers — while there were a couple from Lakeshore starting to work with vocational disciplines — but a lot of them you could tell didn’t have any experience with the vocational side of things, and they were definitely unaware of what it is that we do. I hope this creates new awareness and puts some more people in the pipeline to help fill the skilled trades gap. The trade is here for the long run, and it’s a good job and a good thing to get into.”
Breen was appreciative of the opportunity. He says, “I appreciated the chance to meet leaders of local shops and now have confidence and connections to reach out and expose my students to a brighter future right here in Southwest Michigan,” and concludes, “Great event!”
Baylee Makay is an HR Assistant with Hanson Mold on Hollywood Road in St. Joe. She accompanied the tours and says, “This was a great step in bringing together educators and manufacturers to better understand business needs in the community.” She adds, “This event allowed local manufacturers to relay a passion about their careers, and to explain how young people can be involved in these occupations. We are looking forward to the next step in the Manufacturing and Schools Working Together Tour, involving students and their parents.”
Cody Laughlin is a Mechanical Design Engineer at Edgewater. He got his first exposure to the high tech manufacturer through the FIRST Robotics program in 2013. He was on the design team from 2014 through 2015 and was offered an internship his senior year to work 1 to 2 hours after school every day at Edgewater. They subsequently offered him a two year apprenticeship and paid for every penny of his tuition, books and fees at Lake Michigan College.
Laughlin says, “I get great experiences here….it’s very hands-on. I honestly don’t think I could have gone four years to college because I don’t learn from books all that well. I learn by doing.” He earned his journeyman’s card after two years — the equivalent to an associates degree or better — and got a lot of learning time in on SolidWorks software.
Cody worked three months in the machine shop, making parts off of prints that came out of engineering, worked three months in assembly, putting those parts together, then completed the other year and a half doing mechanical design and learning from other lead engineers and growing his knowledge of SolidWorks.
He says he achieved a lot in that time, earning his journeyman’s card in 2017, earning honors as the Michigan Apprentice of the Year Award in 2017 from MASCI, and became a certified SolidWorks Professional.
While all that has been happening, Cody was able to buy a house at the age of 19, and renovated and updated it, got married at age 20, and punctuates his story saying, “I have absolutely no student loan debt. A great thing!”
Laughlin showed his design of a machine that makes train car covers for grain carriers in the railroad industry, and another machine that puts out 120, two-inch long fiberglass pins every six seconds, or half-a-million (500,000) pins a day during an eight hour shift. Cody says, best of all, “I get to be a part of starting from a blank sheet of paper to the final product design on display at the plant.” He’s been on the team for four years now.
Blake told educators, “Please understand — we’re a for profit company, we’re not just doing it to be nice guys. But, this is very rewarding and satisfying work for everyone on the team.”
Blake says, “I think we need awareness in every avenue that we can make people aware that in Southwest Michigan we’ve got great jobs, so let’s keep our kids here. Teachers, parents, administrators – the more people that are aware of the opportunities, the easier it will be for the students to maybe see them for themselves.”
Blake says, “Hearing it from different voices might make them even more aware of what’s going on. I am convinced that when you’re in your normal element, you only understand your normal element, and until you break out of that and see something different, you just can’t understand it the same way.”
Hopefully, there were a lot of people on those factory tours who can now break out of their normal element and help kids share in the “AHA Moment…” That’s the moment when students are shown how what they are learning Actually Has Application (AHA) in the real world, and that is why they need to master the work they are being taught.
Organizers Dave Goodenough, Tim Tate, Sam Stine, Shane Peters and others did an excellent job of coordinating the tour program, dinner, comments and more, and now look forward to the next steps in the spring with students and parents taking similar tours to open their own eyes to the amazing opportunities right here at home.
