By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Students at Greenville High School Career Technology Center are finishing some of their projects as the school year winds down. Students in the Greenville Engineering and Construction program recently finished two projects under the leadership of teachers Mike Manix and Josh Moore.

Students Camden Mathis, Tryston Good, Kevin Nguyen and Ryan Burrowes built a table for the Project LIFE program under the director of coordinator Julia Slyder.

In Engineering Tech Prep 11, the students applied the skills they have been studying this year to complete this project. The students completed the project from start to finish with the design on the AutoCAD system to the completed project that will be used in the kitchen of the Project LIFE class.

Nguyen said, “We started with a design on AutoCAD first of all and then later we decided to plan it out, get the materials, plan our budget, because we didn’t want to spend much. We wanted to see how much we could reuse before we had to buy more materials.” By reusing old tables in their design, the students were able to keep the cost at approximately $100 on materials. “That’s not too bad for a table that will last for a few years,” he added.

The students said the table will be mainly used for food preparation. The engineering students included a trash can at the end of the table where scrap can be wiped off.

The project, in total, took about nine months to complete. However, once the design was completed, the project moved a little faster and they were able to complete it in about three months. Nugyen explained they had other class projects to do so they had to fit this project in when they could.

The students learned it takes a lot of planning to figure out the project and to make everything work.

Slyder is in her fourth year with the Project LiFE program. She explained in the classroom, students focus on individual education program goals, team building, social skills, financial literacy, safety in the workplace, preparing to gain and maintain employment, and independent living skills as well as participation in worksites in the community.

A large supporter of Project LIFE is the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, based in the Washington, D.C. area, which was established in 1991 by Mitsubishi Electric Cooperation and the Mitsubishi Electric U.S. companies, which produce, sell and distribute a wide range of consumer, industrial, commercial and professional electronics products. The Foundation has contributed more than $21 million to organizations that are empowering young people with disabilities to lead more inclusive and productive lives. To learn more, visit www.MEAF.org.

The other project students finished was the creation of a minibike. GHS Seniors Alex Hadden, Gavin Swank and Phillip Shuttleworth worked on this project for their first-year instructor Josh Moore. Moore said the students came to him this year and asked if they could get into welding this year. “It was January or February when we got started and have been working four or five hours every week on it,” said Moore. “It’s been a pretty fun little project,” he added.

Moore said he came up with the idea for the minibike and the students were eager to get it done. He said that as a first-year teacher, this will be something he will be able to remember his students by.

The minibike has been fired up and once they put the chain on it, it will be put into use.

Hadden was the lead on the project and said they started in January. “It was hard at the start because we were just kind of trying to fabricate and design the frame for it. Once we did that, it kind of went together afterwards,” said Hadden. The high school senior said he learned about welding and fabrication from this project. “I never built something like this before or event attempted it, so I thought it was neat to learn something like that.”

The team members agreed they were pleased with the final product.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].