Advanced Manufacturing Camp

So far, “it’s been fun,” she said.

“I wanted to learn more about mechanics,” Ivy said. “And I just wanted a personal experience up close to welding.”

Ryver Aydelott, an incoming seventh grader at Guntown Middle School, already had experience with welding with her father, who works in the profession. In fact, she brought her own welding helmet, gloves, jacket and cap to camp on Tuesday

“I wanted to learn more about welding and how to function with machines,” Aydelott said. “My dad does the same thing, so I just wanted to give it a go.”

Students who attend the camp get to see what advanced manufacturing is all about. It might even help some choose a career path, Jason Gholston, a diesel equipment technology instructor at ICC, said as he assisted students at welding stations on Tuesday.

Gina Black, the Community Development Foundation’s Director of Events, helps organize Tek2Go each year. She said the basic goal of the camp is to introduce students to advanced manufacturing because it’s such a major industry in Northeast Mississippi.

ICC, CDF, Hawkeye Industries and the Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Foundation partner to host the camp, which is free to participants thanks to grant funding from the Toyota Wellspring Education Fund and Tennessee Valley Authority.

John David Hagood, an incoming eighth grader at Guntown Middle School, said he’s been looking into engineering careers and thinks it’s a good option for himself. He said it’s been fun to see how all of the machinery works.

“We’ve made our own pens, we’re making a plaque we’re about to weld and we got to work with these robots,” Hagood said, gesturing to a Yaskawa 6 axis robot.