The Lehigh Valley’s What So Cool About Manufacturing? student video contest capped off its fifth anniversary Tuesday night with a record number of online votes and top prizes for Bethlehem’s Northeast Middle School and Northampton Area Middle School.
More than 900 people attended Tuesday’s awards ceremony for the flagship What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? contest at the SteelStacks Center in Bethlehem. The 2018 contest featured 30 teams of middle school students representing 22 school districts in Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties. The contest’s Platinum Sponsors were the Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC) in Allentown, PA; Workforce Board of the Lehigh Valley; Air Products; PNC Bank; and J.G. Petrucci Company.
The student team from Bethlehem Northeast earned the contest’s Outstanding Program Award for its profile of Atlas Machining & Welding. The Northampton Area team earned its fourth straight Viewers Choice Award for its profile of B. Braun Medical. A total of 129,897 votes were cast at WhatsSoCool.org, topping the contest’s previous record of more than 123,000 votes in 2014.
The annual What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? video contests excite students to explore cool manufacturing careers and produce profiles of companies throughout Pennsylvania. Judges in each regional contest bestow a variety of awards, and each contest features an online vote for its Viewers Choice Award.
Created by MRC in 2013, the What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? contests draw entries from nearly 200 teams across Pennsylvania. The teams of students and teacher coaches receive camera equipment, software, and professional guidance as they learn to script, record, and edit their video stories. The contest’s objective is to change students’ perceptions about manufacturing careers.
The What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? contests are supported regionally by their sponsors and partners. Twelve contests will be held Pennsylvania during the 2017-2018 school year. These contests involve students from 39 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties – a combined area that represents more than 9 million of the state’s 12.7 million residents. The contest format also has been adopted by groups in 11 additional states.
To mark the Lehigh Valley contest’s fifth anniversary, team teacher coaches who have participated in each of the five years were honored with service awards.
A companion cupcake making competition featuring area career and technical schools also was held for the second consecutive year. Judges were provided by Carlo’s Bakery – the bakery featured on the television series Cake Boss. Entries were created by students at the Lehigh Career and Technical Institute (LCTI); the Career Institute of Technology (CIT) in Easton; Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School (BAVTS); and the Carbon Career & Technical Institute (CCTI).
Winners of additional awards Tuesday night were as follows:
- Outstanding Educational Value: (Tie) Bethlehem’s Broughal Middle School for its profile of Eastern Surfaces and Palmerton Area Middle School for its video on KME Kovatch
- Outstanding Career Pathway: Whitehall-Coplay Middle School for its video about Follett, LLC
- Outstanding Marketing Plan: Nazareth Area Middle School for its project with Equipto
- Outstanding Team Spirit: Wilson Area School District for its profile of Victualic Company
- Outstanding Cool: (Tie) Allentown’s Raub Middle School for its profile of Dynalene and Bethlehem’s East Hills Middle School for its video about Piramal Critical Care
- Outstanding Creativity: Saucon Valley Middle School for its video about Solar Technology, Inc.
- Outstanding Editing: Lower Macungie Middle School in the East Penn School District for its profile of ProtoCAM
- Outstanding Videography: Parkland School District’s Springhouse Middle School for its look inside Crayola
- Sweet Manufacturing Cupcake Display: Lehigh Career and Technical Institute (LCTI)
- Sweet Manufacturing Cupcake: Career Institute of Technology (CIT)
Additional sponsors of the 2018 Lehigh Valley contest were as follows:
Gold Sponsors: AMETEK; PBS39 Lehigh Valley; King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul Attorneys at Law; Sahl Communications; Piramal Critical Care; RETTEW Realty; Aerotek; Salus Systems; Bracalente Manufacturing Group; Crayola; B. Braun Medical; Ocean Spray; ATAS International; PPL Electric Utilities; Stanley Black & Decker; Fromm Electric; Mack Trucks; and the PATH program partnership of Northampton Community College and Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC).
Silver Sponsors: Just Born Quality Confections; Northampton Community College; Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation; Dynalene; Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC); First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union; ProtoCAM; EmpowerStar Marketing; Gross McGinley Attorneys at Law; Concannon Miller Certified Public Accountants; Follett, LLC; Victaulic Company; Eastern Surfaces; RER Energy Group; Key Bank; Bosch Rexroth; Northampton County; Kreischer Miller; and Feinberg Real Estate Advisors.
Networking Reception Sponsor: Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba Attorneys at Law.
Bronze Sponsors: Carbon Chamber & Economic Development Corporation; National Museum of Industrial History; Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Manufacturing Council; ATLAS Machining & Welding; Express Employment Professionals; Smooth-On; C.F. Martin and Company; Provident Bank; HMK Insurance; Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank; and Bio Med Sciences.
Media Sponsors: PBS39 Lehigh Valley; Adams Outdoor Advertising; Lehigh Valley Business; 99.9 The Hawk radio; and NewsRadio 790 WAEB.
News Story Contact
Karen Buck, Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC)
Allentown, PA, 610.628.4626
Photo from Sahl Communications