Teens learn engineering skills by building dragsters

GRAND CHUTE - More than a dozen teens spent the week building model-sized dragsters at The Power of Manufacturing Camp at Fox Valley Technical College.

The cars are designed and constructed by the students. Using a power tool as a motor, students say it was a week with some bumps in the road.

"I learned that sometimes it doesn't always work,” said Chance Svatek, 14. “Sometimes it works on paper, but it doesn't work when you're actually putting it together."

Even after plenty of practice, these racecars are a work in progress.

"It's not that hard, but some of it's a little bit new because we've got an industrial grinder that we have to put up with," he said.

Teens skipped the swimming and sports camps for welding and engineering.

"I want to go into engineering, so this is helping," said Kollin Heimke, 13.

Local companies who depend on a local workforce hope teens continue to be interested in engineering.

"You're teaching the younger kids that this is what some of us do for a living and this is an opportunity that if you enjoy something like this, you can do it and pursue as a career,” said Sam Wallander, from Brillion-based Ariens Company.

"Manufacturing is still the largest job sector in the state of Wisconsin, so we need to keep that pipeline of young talent filled so we can continue to have a strong economy in this state,” said Mike Cattelino of Fox Valley Technical College.