Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1510765
16 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2023 educating them so they work in roles where they can excel and be excited. Matties: Your K-12 program currently has a geographic limitation of maybe a couple hours' drive from your facility. Have you discussed trying to take this program to a wider area? e desire is there to widen that circle, but with every mile, the scale adds hundreds or thousands of students in each community you include. Matties: Thinking specifically of your special project of tasking students with real world problems, it seems like that could be an out- reach well beyond the geographic boundar- ies that you have in place. I'm glad you brought that up. We learned dur- ing the pandemic how many things can be done virtually. We're also working to teach educa- tional agencies in the state about the partner- ships we can offer. So, we're not interacting directly with students in that way, but we cer- tainly support an even broader area through expertise, networking, and connecting folks with experts. Matties: With that core mission to introduce young minds to the career paths in manu- facturing, what advice do you have for other manufacturers in creating their own educa- tion outreach program? One way is to help others engage in this K-12 outreach. Starting at the baseline, you might ask if there's a parent you know with a con- nection to a school. You can use that to reach out directly to these schools, just to start the conversation. e big thing is applying some of the same principles that you utilize with your