Dream It. Do It. kicks off third year
The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce and its partners, Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC (CNS), Anderson County Schools and Oak Ridge Schools, kicked off the third straight year of the “Dream It. Do It.” program at the Roane State Community College’s Higher Education and Workforce Training Facility in Clinton.
The program pairs middle-school students with local businesses to learn about job opportunities in advanced manufacturing.
“We’ve grown from four schools in its first year to six schools in 2017,” said Rick Meredith, head of the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce. “Dream It. Do It. is opening the eyes of area school kids about the future job opportunities in manufacturing; and they are learning in a fun way.”
CNS provides each student team with a GoPro camera to create videos highlighting area manufacturing and industrial operations. Those videos are then posted online and viewers cast a vote for their favorites. Winning team members each receive their own GoPro camera.
On hand for the kickoff were this year’s participating school teams from Clinton, Jefferson, Lake City, Norris, Norwood and Robertsville Middle Schools. Also in attendance were representatives from the participating industries, including Aisin Automotive Castings, Protomet, Techmer PM, Eagle Bend Mfg., Clayton Homes, and SL TN.
At the kickoff, the students drew out of a box to see which industry they would be representing this year. The pairings are as follows: Norwood Middle – AISIN, Clinton Middle – Techmer PM, Lake City Middle – Eagle Bend Mfg., Robertsville Middle – SL Tennessee, Jefferson Middle School – Clayton Homes, and Norris Middle School – Protomet.