A hands-on educational program designed to spread awareness about careers in manufacturing, Camp CHAMP debuted as part of the Leyden Student Summit held last month at East Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois. Of the 170 middle school students who signed up for the two-day summer career-oriented educational event, 30 chose to experience first-hand what it takes to make pens out of wood using tabletop machinery. The students watched and assisted with various operations as they moved from one station to the next. There was a tabletop lathe, a rotary grinder, a tabletop milling machine, an assembly station, a laser marking machine and, finally, an inspection system.

The brainchild of Terry Iverson and the CHAMPION Now organization he founded, Camp CHAMP is the not-for-profit organization's latest effort to change how American manufacturing is perceived in our nation (CHAMPION). Judging from its successful debut at the Leyden Student Summit, future Camp CHAMP events should go far to help change the perception of manufacturing careers in this country.

At the end of the first day of the camp, I had the privilege of sitting down to interview three middle schoolers in attendance. (You can hear what they had to say by scanning the QR image that's next to a still captured from Cutting Tool Engineering's video coverage of the event.) Suffice to say, turning and milling and laser marking are "cool," and would make for a "cool job."

Camp CHAMP made a good impression for manufacturing, and, hopefully, the industry can help keep that momentum going by supporting CHAMPION Now with future such efforts. If you're interested in sponsoring a future camp, contact CHAMPION Now Executive Director Brit Iverson (Terry's son) at [email protected].

Investing in this effort now will pay dividends down the road as many of today's youth become tomorrow's manufacturing workforce.