TA News

Fifteen Students from TA and LHS Participate in Inaugural Program

After more than 18 months of planning, FUJIFILM Dimatix and Hypertherm launched a half-day STEM internship program in high-tech manufacturing and engineering for seven Thetford Academy students and eight of their counterparts from Lebanon High School.  

In the semester-long program which began Aug. 30, students will rotate through various FUJIFILM Dimatix and Hypertherm teams. Over the 18 week program, students will be immersed in all aspects of business including human resources, marketing, assembly, accounting, engineering, and research and development. In addition to learning career readiness skills, participating students are earning credits toward graduation.

Thetford Academy students, who were selected for the program after a competitive application process, are seniors Seth Boyce, Jaime Harkins, Eli Kaliski, and Trent Larsen, and juniors Ryan Pepe, Garrett Shafer, and Gavin Slider.

At FUJIFILM Dimatix, students will follow the lifecycle of a printhead, studying the production process, material science, failure analysis engineering, testing, design, and much more.

At Hypertherm, students will explore the manufacturing process from start to finish. From design to testing, to marketing and sales; students will experience what it takes for a global company to bring a product to market, and the many different jobs and functions involved.

“It is of great strategic importance that upcoming generations are engaged and capable in all areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math,” said Mike Baymiller, VP of Human Resources at Hypertherm. “We are excited by this opportunity to welcome and help students expand their knowledge of STEM careers, while providing invaluable on-the-job experience.”

“It is so exciting to see this four-way collaboration develop from idea to reality,” said Bill Bugg, Head of School at Thetford Academy. “By actively participating in high tech manufacturing, students are exposed to a powerful motivating experience that will likely lead to job opportunities and postsecondary educational opportunities.

“For their part, the two participating businesses can attract promising and talented young people, helping to expand their workforce while ensuring a vibrant and stable Upper Valley for years to come.”

FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc., the world’s leading supplier of drop-on-demand inkjet printheads for industrial applications, is driving a revolution in inkjet technology to support a new generation of products for printing, industrial product decoration and materials deposition. The company’s innovative inkjet technology and world-class fabrication techniques enable OEMs, system integrators and manufacturers to build cutting-edge systems and manufacturing processes for high-performance, precision printing of traditional inks and deposition of functional fluids on all types of surfaces, including flexible substrates.

Hypertherm designs and manufactures industrial cutting products for use in a variety of industries such as shipbuilding, manufacturing, and automotive repair. Its product line includes cutting systems, in addition to CNC motion and height controls, CAM nesting software, robotic software and consumables. Hypertherm systems are trusted for performance and reliability that result in increased productivity and profitability for hundreds of thousands of businesses. The New Hampshire based company’s reputation for cutting innovation dates back 50 years to 1968, with Hypertherm’s invention of water injection plasma cutting. The 100 percent associate owned company, consistently named a best place to work, has more than 1,400 associates along with operations and partner representation worldwide. Learn more at www.hypertherm.com.

Information for this article was contributed by Michelle Avila at Hypertherm, who can be reached at 603-643-3441 or [email protected].