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Wheeling Park High School Students ‘Grapple’ for Steel Industry

photo by: Photo by Joselyn King

Wheeling Park High School machine tool technology students Trevor Howell, John Johnson, Briar Provenzano and Merrick Miller show off "the grapple," a tool they helped design for Wheeling-Nippon Steel to assist in the heavy lifting of 200-pound paper rolls.

WHEELING – Wheeling Park High School machine tool technology students were tasked by Wheeling-Nippon Steel to create a solution to a heavy-lifting problem, and they crafted a way to “grapple” with 200-pound, eight-foot long rolls of packing paper.

Wheeling-Nippon executives visited WPHS Friday to view a prototype for the “Grapple,” a tool that would be used by workers to move the rolls instead of more cumbersome cranes, explained Larry Persina, general manager for operations for Wheeling-Nippon.

The West Virginia Department of Education and the West Virginia Manufacturing Association have been partnering to match up high school CTE programs with manufacturers to create possible solutions for needs the companies might have.

Students at WPHS were matched with Wheeling-Nippon and machine tool technology teacher Aaron Fedorke as part of the West Virginia Innovation Challenge competition..

Persina on Friday toured the CTE work simulation program at WPHS, and he acknowledged it was a unique situation for the company to work with high school students. He said he was encouraged to proceed with the partnership after he spoke with Fedorke, a former state teacher of the year finalist.

photo by: Photo by Joselyn King

Wheeling Park High School machine tool technology Aaron Fedorke,left, speaks with Larry Persina, general manager for operations at Wheeling-Nippon Steel. Fedorke's students created "the grapple," a tool they helped design for Wheeling-Nippon Steel to assist in the heavy lifting of 200-pound paper rolls.

“What convinced me was hIs background, and his describing what his students had done in the past,” Persina said.

He added he had not seen any projects the students had done. But the students came to Wheeling-Nippon’s facility to view how workers there functioned, and determined what needed to make the lifting process more efficient.

“They asked all the right questions,” Persina said of the students. “You can tell they are very enthusiastic about that program.”

Fedorke said his students next will look to improve on the prototype and eventually start production on the Grapple. Students are now constructing the actual tool, which will be made of aluminum.

“Anytime you can have teachers and students in a shop day after day,” Fedorke said. “But when you can put that (education) to real world experiences – like what Wheeling-Nippon has done for us – that’s the end result. That’s the graduation day. That’s the best thing to see all the skills they have learned in the classroom and the shop put to a real world scenario.”

photo by: Photo by Joselyn King

Wheeling Park High School machine tool technology Aaron Fedorke,left, watches as Assistant Principal Stephanie Bugaj welcomes executives from Wheeling-Nippon Steel to the school. Fedorke's students created "the grapple," a tool they helped design for Wheeling-Nippon Steel to assist in the heavy lifting of 200-pound paper rolls.

Assistant Principal Stephanie Bugaj, also director of the school’s CTE program, expressed pride in the machine tool students’ work.

“Our job in career tech education is to prepare students to go out and do real world jobs,” she explained. “They were given a challenge to prepare something for a real business, and they did it.

“Our goal is to prepare students with high quality skills and high quality work ethic to go out in the workforce. This is the perfect example of how we do that.”

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