FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Several groups of high school students took part in an unveiling party, as a part of Project G.R.I.L.L. on Friday.
Grill stands for Growing Readiness in Learning and Leading.
Area manufacturers team up with technology education students to design unique working charcoal grills from scratch, over the course of one year.
“It’s everything from their design through how they weld, bend, and fabricate the grills. So it’s all about the full process. And then they have to share their lessons learned along the way. Challenges, teamwork, that sort of thing. They have to manage a budget, as well as order all of their own material so it’s a very real-world experience,” Bernadette Ericksen with Envision Greater Fond du Lac said.
Envision Greater Fond du Lac runs the program.
Fond du Lac High School Junior Calvin Conger and his team are fired up.
They’re showing off the charcoal grill they designed and built.
“Slowly but surely, we progressed it into this. We cut everything out ourselves. Manufactured it all ourselves, painted everything,” Conger said.
The team started the project back in the fall.
“We had a lot of good times. There were a lot of struggles and a lot of times where we just wanted to not do it anymore but at the end of it when we come together, and you have a great group of people like this, and have a day like this, it pays off,” Conger said.
Officials say manufacturing is the leading industry in Fond du Lac County.
Organizers say it’s good to see so many students interested in jobs in the trades.
“There are many of them, like I said 64 students this year. Many of which will go into skilled trades or manufacturing. Or go on and continue their education and hopefully come back to Fond du Lac County to live and work,” Ericksen said.
Representatives from Kondex Corporation, one of the project’s sponsors, say they’ve hired several people from Project G.R.I.L.L. over the years.
“And I’m just more and more impressed every year by the talent that comes out of Project G.R.I.L.L. and look forward every year to hire more students from the program,” Kelly Peterson with Kondex Corporation said.
Peterson says there is a great need for more manufacturing workers at the company.
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