The SME Education Foundation was highlighted in an extended feature in The New York Times on preparing high school students for careers in robotics within the manufacturing and engineering industry.
Valerie Freeman, a manufacturing and robotics pathway teacher at Park High School, will join the SME Education Foundation Board of Directors in 2021. Park High School in Racine Unified School District joined the SME PRIME school network in 2017. Freeman was instrumental in utilizing SME PRIME to install new curriculum, training to teach students important skills like how to program a robotic arm and remodeling the classroom for a more effective learning environment.
The number of SME PRIME high schools is set to double after the SME Education Foundation received a $6 million donation from the State of Michigan’s approved Education Budget. The legislation was crafted with bipartisan support from the Michigan Legislature, including Foundation board member and state representative Joe Tate (D-Detroit).
As one of the first recipients of SME’s new Irving P. McPhail Scholarship, Brayden Miller is pursuing an associate degree in electrical and mechanical engineering at Rose State College. From there, he plans to transfer to a four-year university to get a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
Jeremy Kaszycki used his ambition, tenacity and a two-year SME Education Foundation scholarship to help change his life, transforming him from a high school student undecided about his future to an assembly process engineer at Magna International, a Tier One automotive supplier.
By providing an extensive package of manufacturing- and engineering-related educational resources, the SME PRIME (Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) program has enabled Troy High School to bring a near-decade-long conversation about expanding the school’s career and technical education (CTE) offerings to fruition this year.
This is the first in a series of articles related to the Saginaw (Michigan) ISD’s summer 2021 manufacturing camp.
Pontiac High School (PHS) was accepted into the SME PRIME (Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) program in 2020-21. PHS received a grant from PRIME that allowed it to create new manufacturing career pathways for students and purchase state-of-the-art equipment: a three-piece Festo MecLab, a Festo Didactic AC/DC Training System, a Verisurf part tester, a Starrett PMI kit, and a variety of hand tools from Starrett and Snap-on.
Wheeling High School prepares its students to be innovative and productive leaders in STEM. The students involved in the SME PRIME initiative relate classwork to real-life by experiencing manufacturing up-close during their experience at the FABTECH student summit.
Roush Industries is making a difference by investing in the SME PRIME schools initiative to prepare Starkweather Academy students for opportunities as machinists, welders and fabricators. The company helps to inform and provide modern equipment, tailored curriculum and hands-on training for the school in Plymouth, Michigan.