WELDING SPARKS HOLIDAY JOY , CAREER GOALS
Large metal ornaments , a snowman , elves , Santa ’ s sleigh , a mailbox and lighted trees have been added to the Dr . Jim Vaszauskas Center for the Performing Arts ’ outdoor holiday décor over the past seven years . The festive decorations began as a lesson inside Alex Higgs ’ and Tim Sherwood ’ s manufacturing classrooms . Higgs and Sherwood teach manufacturing at Ben Barber Innovation Academy .
“ I began having my students work on holiday projects for the Center so they could learn how to create work in a reallife environment ,” Higgs said . “ It ’ s turned into something everyone really enjoys .”
Higgs initially approached staff at the Center to see if his students could work on a bigger lighted tree since the one on display at the time was small . The experience was beneficial to welding students because they learned to create something on a large scale and the challenges that go along with it . Students used their problem-solving skills to figure out how to weld the large tree outside because it was too long to fit in their workshop . Over the years , students have created additional decorations , including ornaments representing groups of campuses from elementary through high school . In 2022 , the latest ornament was introduced into the outdoor holidayscape .
Higgs says the holiday projects are helping his students become career ready . The welders-in-training are learning how to make a product based on a customer ’ s order , create that product with little to no error , and use industry
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