TA News

Hypertherm and FUJIFILM Dimatix, two Lebanon, N.H., businesses, celebrated 15 Thetford Academy and Lebanon High School students’ achievements upon their successful completion of the inaugural STEM High Tech Manufacturing Internship program on Tuesday night, Jan. 15.

The internship was an unequivocal success. During the program finale, which took place at Hypertherm’s 71 Heater Road facility in Lebanon, each participating student presented his or her outtakes from the semester-long internship in three- to five-minutes speeches.  Audience members included officials from Hypertherm, FUJIFILM, Thetford Academy, Lebanon School District and Lebanon High School, River Valley Community College, Community College of Vermont, and community members from across the Upper Valley.

As a result of the internship program, “Students are carrying themselves with more confidence,” says Mark Pichette, TA’s Director of Counseling. “They’ve learned hands-on skills and soft skills that round off their education. They’ve been able to apply their learning in a real world setting. It’s been an extraordinary experience for the students. All of us at Thetford Academy are appreciative of the time and efforts and care of the program leaders at Hypertherm, Fuijifilm, and Lebanon High School.”

Participating Thetford Academy students provided these general thoughts about the program:

• Senior Trent Larsen: “I really liked the hands-on aspects of the program.”
• Senior Eli Kaliski – “I found new career options that I had never thought of before.”
• Junior Ryan Pepe: “There was a lot of variety in the two companies you wouldn’t have expected.”
• Senior Jamie Hawkins: “It was amazing to see how two large companies work.”
• Senior Seth Boyce: “I was impressed with how the employees in the two companies came from such diverse paths.”
• Junior Garrett Shafter:  “It was really interesting to see how many people it takes to make each company function and produce the products they manufacture.”
• Junior Gavin Slider:  “I loved learning about things you’d never learn about in school.”

When asked what they particularly enjoyed about the program, the students said:

• Eli: “Printing on Skiddles at Fuji and manipulating product lines.”
• Gavin:  “Seeing all the different jobs and learning what they did.”
• Jamie: “Seeing how different the manufacturing process is at the two companies.  I loved the machining at Hypertherm and designing with Sketch-up.”
• Seth:  “I found the history of lean manufacturing really interesting.  Hypertherm’s work to develop the most efficient manufacturing process was impressive.”
• Garrett:  “I discovered that I’m really interested in the failure analysis that they did at Fuji.”
• Ryan:  “I enjoyed studying statistical analysis at Fuji, including learning how failure data is used to improve the process of manufacturing.”
• Trent:  “I especially enjoyed the 3D printing at Hypertherm.”

Dean of Academics Marc Chabot added, “The investment in time, leadership and resources by Hypertherm and FujiFilm brought two forward-thinking (and very fortunate) schools together to create a program of unmatched quality for our students.”

The event got some nice coverage from a national business news source – including this story published on Jan. 16.