Local student, industries take part in CSCC signing day
Local student, industries take part in CSCC signing day
Cleveland State hosted the signees, industry partners and immediate family for the 2020 Signing Day event. In a special ceremony at Cleveland State’s main campus in Cleveland, where COVID-19 safety measures were put into place, Austin Bayne (Cleveland High School), Mason Cochran (Cleveland High School), Holly Farrow (Homeschool), Dylan Griswold (Bradley Central High School), Makaylah Shoemate (Walker Valley High School), Lucas Wallace (Walker Valley High School) and Brady Watson (McMinn County High School) all signed their letters of intent to join the special work-based learning program.
Bayne and Farrow signed with Waupaca Foundry in Etowah, Cochran and Griswold signed with Beiersdorf Manufacturing in Cleveland, Shoemate signed with McKee Foods out of Collegedale, Wallace signed with Mayfield Dairy Farms in Athens and Watson signed with DENSO Manufacturing.
As signees with the Advanced Technology Institute, each student is making a two-year commitment to work with their sponsoring company while attending Cleveland State.
“They earn while they learn,” said Marci Reiter, Cleveland State Advanced Technologies Institute director. “The companies know the classes their student enrolls in each term. Then, they provide them with practical training in the same areas when they are working as a paid employee in their facility. We evaluate them at the end of each term and tell them the good and the bad so they know what they excel at as well as what things they can work on.”
This August begins the third year of the program at Cleveland State. The first class of students who signed in 2018 graduated this year.
“Several of the students are continuing with their education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on engineering tracks,” Reiter added. “We are also anticipating another student will be signing on with his sponsoring company in the near future.”
The ATI is designed to help students who are pursuing technology degrees and high-demand careers in their chosen fields, as well as area companies in need of a talented and trained workforce.
“The ATI helps educate, train and build our local workforce,” said Dr. Bill Seymour, Cleveland State Community College president. “The work our companies and the institute are doing is helping grow our communities. It is helping create highly skilled jobs that lead to a higher quality of life for those who call Southeast Tennessee home.”The Cleveland State Advanced Technologies Institute is part of a $25 million state investment to incentivize collaboration at the local level among higher education institutions, K-12 and economic development partners called the Governor’s Investment in Vocational Education (GIVE) program. It is administered by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC).
