Program Continues to Thrive with Aetna Donations

Aetna Building Products continues to support Reed-Custer High School’s Industrial Technology Program with in-kind donations for student projects--a gift that educator Mark Smith says helped to save his high school industrial technology program after COVID.

"Since 1996 my students and I have been building partnerships with industry to support Industrial Technology education," says Smith. "Our partners make an advanced manufacturing program possible by supplying technical support, networking opportunities, internships, field trips, material donations, and career opportunities. Without our program supporters, the educational experience that inspires my students would not exist."

Reed-Custer production students moving recently donated panels from Aetna Building Products to be closer to the CNC machines where they will be used. "Students are moving materials, they're practicing good lifting techniques and they're working in pairs," says educator Mark Smith.

Smith had oriented his curriculum to better reflect what was actually happening in industry, and his classes started using specialized machinery to build kitchen cabinets, which are then installed in an actual home at a minimal cost. This gives students a real-life taste of a career in woodworking.

But in 2020, everything changed, and the cost of building materials soared. Smith says he wasn't sure how he could continue to get the materials needed for his classes. In the meantime, Aetna President Jon Minnaert was on the hunt for an education program to add to their ‘Aetna Gives Back’ charitable division.

Minnaert came across the Reed-Custer program on social media and reached out in late 2020, meeting with Smith and school officials in 2021, and agreed to gift products to the program.

The donation came just in time, says Smith. “I was wondering how my students were going to afford their projects, when our panel products were $60 a foot before and now some cost as much as $180,” recalls Smith, who says he is unsure what would’ve happened if not for Aetna’s support. That’s no longer a concern, now that the class doesn’t have to pay for the plywood and hardwood it needs.

Although he wasn’t even aware that Reed-Custer’s curriculum was facing dire straits, Minnaert said he is thrilled that Aetna help made a difference. “That’s what we wanted to do,” he said.

Companies can be supporters in a wide range of ways, Smith notes, before naming several: technical assistance, mentoring, professional guidance through career fairs, funding for students’ trade show attendance, product donations and more. “Nothing says this industry has opportunities for students more than industry being involved with your program and supporting you in all these ways,” he declares.

Visit http://rchsit.weebly.com/program-supporters.html to read more about the Reed-Custer program and to see its list of supporters or contact Mark Smith at mark.smith@rc255.net if you are interested in building a pipeline for new skilled employees.

And visit www.aetnaplywood.com for more information on Aetna Building Products and its charitable division.