Proudly donning their team shirt, Clark Magnet’s robotics students warmly welcomed high-ranking officials from the California Department of Education, the National SkillsUSA office and manufacturing industry business partners. Among numerous  schools, Clark’s Engineering and Manufacturing program was chosen to be awarded the $10,000 grant as a result of running a high-quality lab facility, as well as participating in SkillsUSA, an organization for students, teachers and industry working together to ensure that the country has a skilled workforce.

The check was given to David Black, engineering teacher and robotics team mentor. “We intend to use the grant funds to support student participation in SkillsUSA, add additional materials, and equipment to the advanced manufacturing lab,” Black said. Black also intends to develop the curriculum and documentation to be better prepared to earn accreditation from the National Institute for Metalworking Skills.

Urielle Corcuera

“I’m glad that now we have more funding because that means more opportunities, more resources,” said senior Andrea Vazquez. “It is an expensive program — $45,000 to run.” With this funding, the engineering program will be able to provide more for incoming students interested in the manufacturing industry, as well as the robotics team that competes annually.

After the grant was given, senior Nanor Asadourian gave a tour of the lab. Asadourian demonstrated how the machines are used. According to Asadourian, many of the Robotics’ class involvement in SkillsUSA including her participation in Computer Aided Manufacturing demo competition with robotics’ president Alexander Luke was also one of reasons why Clark was awarded the grant.

“We needed the grant because it will be good for our program,” said first-year robotics student Alexander Fenyes. “We will be putting it towards our robots for the competition.”