Staff photos / Ron Selak
From left, Jose Rivero, 17, Jaiden Humbert, 17, and Jacob Gugliotta, 16, all juniors at Cardinal Mooney High School, work a robotic arm Friday during Manufacturing Day at the Excellence Training Center, Youngstown State University. The event was held to give area high school students the opportunity to learn about careers in advanced and additive manufacturing. Approximately 60 students from about six schools in the Mahoning Valley attended Manufacturing Day.

Brianna Grosick, 15, a sophomore at Valley STEM + ME2 Academy at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center in Canfield, uses a virtual headset Friday during Manufacturing Day at the Excellence Training Center, Youngstown State University. The event was held to give area high school students the opportunity to learn about careers in advanced and additive manufacturing. Approximately 60 students from about six schools in the Mahoning Valley attended.

YOUNGSTOWN — Sixty or so high school students from across the region who have shown an interest in manufacturing as a career weren’t in school a bit on Friday, but still in a classroom.

That’s because they were at Manufacturing Day at Youngstown State University’s Excellence Training Center, where they were exposed to careers in advanced and additive manufacturing through hands-on activities, demos and breakout sessions.

It was for Manufacturing Day 2024.

The day, marked the first Friday in October, was started by the Manufacturing Institute to open eyes and doors to careers in the industry; and inspire and educate people about the new manufacturing industry as well as build a foundation of future workers in the industry.

The students — groups of about a dozen each from Warren G. Harding, Southeast (Portage County), Hubbard and Cardinal Mooney high schools as well as Valley STEM + ME2 Academy at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center — were rotated through the Excellence Training Center at different stations — computer-aided design, manufacturing, robotics, virtual reality with headsets and industrial maintenance.

“The object is for them to see the various pathways that YSU offers. You can come to YSU and get a bachelor’s degree or an associate degree, but if you don’t happen to be ready for our university yet, you can come to the Excellence Training Center and you can take our very short-term workforce courses, get a certificate and hopefully get hired, get a good paying job and maybe that will lead you back to YSU,” Jackie Ruller, executive director of workforce, education and innovation at the training center. “But if not, they can get a good paying job and earn a living wage in advanced manufacturing.”

Most, if not all, of the students who attended already have been introduced to manufacturing, have an understanding of the industry and have expressed an interest in it as a career.

From an industry perspective, events like Friday help to continue to cultivate that interest to potentially feed the workforce pipeline. It also shows the students that viable careers are available in manufacturing.

“I think for a lot of students, manufacturing careers aren’t visible to them,” Alex Hertzer, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, said. “We see teachers and doctors and lawyers, but we don’t always see the CNC machinist and we don’t know what that means, so to be able to come and see a real CNC machine at least opens up their eyes to know there are opportunities they may not have ever known existed.”

The event was co-sponsored by MVMC and YSU’s College of STEM.

There also was a mini-career fair with representatives from 11 job- and training-organizations and manufacturing companies.

“I think it’s cool to mash the two together, so they get to see all of these different pathways — robotics, 3D printing, but then they get to come here and actually interact with manufacturers to hear straight from them about the positions and skills and things they are looking for,” Hertzer said.

The variety of companies, he said, was a “nice mix of employers because we have everything from traditional steel manufacturers to Humtown with 3D printing, so it’s a nice mix of different kinds of careers,” Hertzer said.

Don Cheffo, school counselor for the Class of 2027 at Warren G. Harding, brought about 11 students to Manufacturing Day. All have already expressed an interest in manufacturing as a career, whether that’s on the engineering side or another path.

“This gives them the opportunity to see more of a wide spectrum of what there is to offer, so when they start doing the career exploration they can see there is a multitude of different careers, but then there is a multitude of different careers with a specialty,” like engineering, whether it’s mechanical, electrical or civil, Cheffo said.

“So, it gives them some hands-on experience,” he said.

Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown had 12 students attend.

One of their teachers, Sam Ronshak, who teaches technology and STEM, said the hands-on learning aspect of the event is vital to introducing as well as cultivating an interest in manufacturing work.

“We can throw theory at them and mathematics at them, but without the actual hands-on and backing it up and saying this what the industry really needs, this is what the industry really wants, our job is where our hands are tied,” he said. “This type of opportunity opens these students’ minds … it’s a positive-positive, win-win.”