business backgrounder | education & workforce
From Class to Shop to Market
High school students in Kalama get hands-on education as they build and sell their ever-evolving line of products.
Brian Mittge
Students at Kalama High School design, manufacture and market a wide variety of goods, thanks to a unique and growing partnership with the Port of Kalama. With real-time feedback from the customers they meet every day, students constantly upgrade their product line, learning as they go.
At A Glance
Instructor Cory Torppa won the $ 100,000 grand prize from the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools competition in 2022, a national contest and grant that aims to advance excellent skilled trades education in U. S. public high schools.
He used the funds to buy advanced equipment for his classroom at
Kalama High School: a Trotec Laser
Engraver, Roland SG3-300( Inkjet Printer / Cutter), LEF-12i( UV printer), Roland BY-20( Direct to Film desktop printer), Prusa MK4( 3-D printers), Stahls’ Hotronix hat press, and Stahls’
Hotronix heat press.
Torppa, student Luke Schmeusser and Port of Kalama Director Mark Wilson brought the insights and innovations of this program to AWB’ s 2025 Spring
Meeting in Vancouver. Twenty-five lucky Spring Meeting attendees took home a wooden puzzle manufactured by the Kalama students.
The Chinook Shoppe: www. chinookshoppe. com
Kalama High School: www. kalamaschools. org / o / khs
Aubree Hutchinson, a senior at Kalama High School, uses the machines at her school to manufacture goods that she then helps sell at a nearby tourist-oriented store.
KALAMA— Some people go their whole careers without ever learning how to design, manufacture, market and sell their own products.
On a recent sunny Friday morning, high school senior Aubree Hutchinson had practiced all these skills by second period, thanks to an innovative collaboration between the local school district and the Port of Kalama.
Hutchinson started the day at her marketing class at Kalama High School,
“ It gives you a real idea of the real world. It shows you what the actual process is to have your own business. And it’ s really not that hard. You just have to look at it with a different perspective.”
— Kalama High School senior Aubree Hutchinson
36 association of washington business