In the Technology and Engineering Department’s Manufacturing Enterprise class at Cumberland Valley High School, you’ll find students taking hands-on projects to new heights. These Projects with Purpose happen daily, and students are reaping the rewards of connecting school and community.
“It’s about partnering with the community so that we can connect our classroom lessons to real-life needs,” says veteran teacher Dan Stuckey. “I want my students to know that their work can –and does – profoundly impact others.”
As part of the course, Mr. Stuckey challenges his Manufacturing Enterprise students to identify a community need that they can create and manufacture the product to support. From mirror boxes to pull toys, their experiences have been boundless.
This year is no exception. On a visit to his classroom recently, we found students cutting, staining, stringing, and engraving steam-bent fishing nets to be donated to the Project Healing Waters organization. Mr. Stuckey says the students actively engage in this process and have refined the production tool and sequence to perfect the nets.
Simultaneously, these same students are partnering with our Agriculture Sciences Department to design and build benches to be placed throughout the district, and they are constructing a Little Free Library for community use. Earlier this school year, students created 60 rolling shelf bases to be used by classmates in Autism Support classrooms. This project has been “instrumental to our programming and creating independence for our students,” said Autism Consultant Alyssa Vecchiolli.
“These projects are about honing our skills and dispositions, and they’re done with pride and purpose,” said Mr. Stuckey. “These students are a Portrait of an Eagle.”