What’s Right With Our Schools: BASF Tech Academy
CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) – In Hamilton County, some rising high school juniors and seniors are jump starting their technical and craft careers this Summer. BASF’s Tech Academy is underway. It guides students through hands-on demonstrations and experiments at Chattanooga State. That’s a far-reaching example of what’s right with our school.
Brittany Davis is the Operations Manager for BASF.
She says, ” Each summer uh BASF takes approximately 15 Rising High School juniors and seniors from the Hamilton County area, and we put them through what we call the BASF Tech Academy. Each summer we do a morning activity where we are looking at soft skills and things that would make students successful in the real world.”
Chris Schmeichel is a retired Chatt State teacher.
Chris says, ” They’ll learn how to weld especially if they go to a course here like TCAT. They can start out 55-60 Grand a year, easily.”
Brittany Davis adds, “Then we move on to a hands-on activity, which could be 3D printing injection molding, and in the afternoon, we are visiting a local manufacturer in the Hamilton County area and showing them about different stem careers that are available.”
Emily Barajas is a STEM School junior.
She says, “I think it’s a really great option for learning about more what you want to do but also career skills that you’re going to need later on; when it comes to trying to find a job.”
Ananth Kidambi is also a STEM School Junior.
Anath says, ” It’s really good to see um what people in the field are doing.”
Breanne Kintz is the Workbase learning coordinator at Chatt State.
She says, “Las We take high school students mostly preferential for rising seniors. But you know there’s an application process all Hamilton County High School students and homeschool students are encouraged to apply. And then we go from there. You don’t have to be looking specifically to get into these tech careers. But it’s like a like an opportunity to discover if you are interested in them because every day they have a different workshop, a different industry that they’re going to their careers you know. So, students need to know that they have options that maybe they haven’t even been exposed to yet. And so, BASF uh with their partnership this is our fifth year doing Tech Academy with them. Um and it just keeps growing and growing and being able to reach more students they can tell their friends, hey I to do all these really cool things um I’ve learned more about welding or or non-destructive testing and I’m interested in pursuing this as a career. So, you can never have too much education.”
Katherine Lowrey is a STEM School junior who says, “I’m planning on going in some type of engineering field and I would like to narrow down like which maybe which specific field of engineering I’d like to go into. So, we’ll see.”
Brittany Davis concludes, ” We do this program to make sure that we are exposing and targeting these local high School stud uh students to make sure that we are um fulfilling the next generation of local um employees. So, we’re really driven to make sure that we attract and retain uh talent in our local Hamilton County area.”
