Warsaw Community Schools Students in the Warsaw Area Career Center’s Regional Advanced Manufacturing Pathway program pose with WCS staff and business partners.

Text and Photos
By Patrick Webb
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Warsaw Community Schools’ first Regional Advance Manufacturing Pathway program group of 18 students attended a ceremony to sign up to work with four local manufacturers.

The RAMP program is a partnership among the Purdue University Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center, Ignite Advance Manufacturing, Warsaw Community Schools Area Career Center, OrthoWorx and the Don Wood Foundation.

WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said RAMP came about in partnership with OrthoWorx “as we looked at what the continuing pipeline and talent is for our local community, making sure that our community stays vibrant as the orthopedic capital of the world.”

Four orthopedic manufacturers — Medartis, Instrumental Machine and Development, Precision Medical Technologies and Zimmer Biomet — are the placement partners.

WCS Warsaw Area Career Center Director and Principal Ben Barkey spoke before the students signed up with their partner organization.

“This journey has been almost two years this July,” said Barkey. “It’s an exciting moment where we have industry actors coming into our schools and work with our students on a regular basis.”

Barkey explained students, currently juniors, will work at one of the partner organizations at their site to learn skills such as manufacturing and engineering. Barkey credited Career Center teacher Zack Harding with including lesson materials based on the worksites and learning new equipment coming in, such as for robotics.

OrthoWorx talent director Erin Serafino told students, “We want you to continue to live here and thrive here.”

Serafino said that Purdue University programs director Lisa Deck with IN-Mac helped to design the class curriculum.

Serafino said that representatives for the four orthopedic companies would teach in the classroom and then students would work in the field, “whether you chose to go to into manufacturing or engineering.”

Lizette Downey, marketing manager for the Don Wood Foundation based in Fort Wayne, also spoke and talked about Ignite Advanced Manufacturing, a partnership including the Don Wood Foundation, businesses and higher education.

Downey said the goal of Ignite Advanced Manufacturing is to reshape the perception of manufacturing and to develop a talent pipeline for manufacturing and advanced technical training.

“The whole point is really geared towards you and people your age, young adults, trying to figure out what direction they want to go,” said Downey.

Medartis supply chain and logistics manager Ryan Christner said Medartis was interested in looking at “developing talent within our community” and local retention.

“As an industry partner, we’re definitely interested in (local retainment) so that we can have a pipeline of future employees,” said Christner. He added the partner businesses will have lessons in classrooms and have students working on site during students’ senior year.

Downey said the Don Wood Foundation became involved due to its close connections with OrthoWorx and local career centers. She said the foundation was “thrilled” to see the RAMP program at WCS and the RAMP model could be replicated in Fort Wayne and across northeast Indiana.

Downey described the program as a reverse job fair, where employers come to try to convince students to work with them for the two-year program.

Hoffert said RAMP work for students will start when school resumes in August.

The 18 students in the first RAMP group are, in alphabetical order:

• Tyler Antunez Brito
• Mackenzie Campbell
• Nathan Carlin
• Matthew D. Cordill
• Logan J. Cox
• Jaxon O. Cranick
• Marco Cuahuizo Gutierrez
• Addison Eastwood
• Daylon Fitzpatrick
• Jamie Paul Haynes-Bright
• Parker J. Justice
• Logan Miller
• Mattias W. Niebbia
• Ian M. Parrott
• Aarav Divyesh Patel
• Jackson Reed Polk
• Gavin L. Schultz
• Jacob Tyler Wood