O’Brien students gain experience.
Published in: New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Date: 4/10/2007
By: Patricia Villers
A Milford-based manufacturer is drawing on the skills of drafting students at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School for computer-aided drafting and design work. And the students in turn are getting some real world work experience without leaving the classroom. Through a partnership with Aerial Lift Inc. of Connecticut in Milford, about 18 drafting students in grades 10-12 are re-drawing manual drawings to a CAD format for the company, drafting teacher Charles Haynes said. “It’s great (because) the kids get an opportunity to do something that’s real,” Haynes said. “We’ve completed one contract, and we’re doing a second one.” Aerial Lift manufactures heavy-lift devices that are mounted on trucks used by tree specialists. Haynes said the project started in March, and students have already completed 60 of the “thousands” of drawings Aerial Lift needs to have redrawn into CAD format. Drafting department head Gary Carlson said his students are fortunate to be getting “legitimate experience” in high school. “They have experience in real life situations,” he said.
Senior Christina Soto, 17, of Ansonia, is project manager. In that role, Soto said, she has to make sure the other students’ drawings are done correctly and to scale. Completing the contract work for Aerial Lift will look good on their resumes, she said, adding that what they are doing is “college level.” Soto and fellow students visited the Milford company and toured the plant. “It’s more real for us,” she said. “Our job is to make everything the same (on the computer) as it is on the floor at the factory.” Soto said she wants to put her computer drawing skills to use and pursue a career in graphic design illustration. She plans to attend Paier College of Art in Hamden.
Senior Beth Gabor, 18, of Oxford, is in charge of documentation control in the students’ company. “I get to keep a list of what’s getting done, and I keep track of the part numbers,” she said. The class has devised its own part-numbering system, she said. Gabor said touring the plant helped her understand what they are working on for the company.
Haynes said the drafting department gets a small amount of money for the work, and the funds “go straight back into the classroom” for needed supplies. He estimates how many hours the drawings take and bills the company accordingly. Joe Potter, Aerial Lift spokesman, said, “This is a wonderful way for the students to learn, instead of working on fictitious projects. It’s working out really well for us and for them.”