Austin Polytechnical Academy students Deandre Joyce, 17 junior, Stran'ja Burge, 18 senior, and Marquiese Travae Booker, 17 senior in the school shop.
John Konstantaras/Chicago News CooperativeBuzzing with excitement, 72 11th graders sat in the auditorium of Austin Polytechnical Academy recently, waiting to board buses that would take them to the International Manufacturing Technology Show at McCormick Place, the largest show of its kind in the United States.
Carrying clipboards and dressed sharply in khakis and red polo shirts, they listened to Bill Vogal, a school administrator and former factory owner, as he read the questions they were assigned to ask exhibitors about their products and services: “What kind of lubricant do Index machines use?” “How many inserts does it take to make an airplane?” Mr. Vogal hollered over the chatter.
For some of the students, the show would be the first encounter with a globalized industry that many of them hope to enter after graduation.
The academy, which is located in the struggling Austin neighborhood, is the city’s first and only career academy dedicated to occupations in high-skill manufacturing. Dan Swinney, chairman of the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council, founded it in 2007 as a Chicago Public Schools “performance school.” Austin Polytech’s mission is to redefine vocational education and revive the city’s manufacturing industry by educating the next generation of advanced manufacturers — in effect, students who enter the workforce as hybrids of machinist and engineer.
Austin Polytech’s diverse curriculum is designed to prepare its 381 students for college, but school leaders also encourage them to pursue manufacturing careers that do not require four-year degrees — an approach that not all educators agree with.
“We’re proposing the revitalization of this nation’s economy, and places like Austin should be at the forefront of that, not left behind,” said Mr. Swinney, who worked as a machinist in a factory in the neighborhood early in his career.
In the spring, the first class will be graduating. The Chicago News Cooperative is following three honors students — Deandre Joyce, Stran’ja Burge and Marquiese Travae Booker — as they navigate the academic year and carve out their futures. The three are determined to succeed in the school, despite its record of poor academic performance and regardless of its setting, which is rife with violence, poverty and unemployment.
Mr. Joyce, a lanky 17-year old, was among the busload of juniors who went to McCormick Place to mingle with industry veterans. He spent his summer as a paid intern with Hudson Precision Products Company in Broadview, and he is working toward a career in high-tech manufacturing.
Ms. Burge, 18, is taking courses like advanced-placement calculus, and is open to careers outside of manufacturing — she said she planned to continue her education. “Not going to college is not an option,” she said, quoting her grandmother.
Mr. Booker, a 17-year-old senior, said he entered Austin because it was a 10-minute walk from home, not because he had an interest in manufacturing. Now he said he hoped to attend Northern Illinois University and work toward a degree in mechanical engineering or Colombia College for acting.
Where the seniors end up in 2011 is an early test of the school’s model for training a workforce that can fill some of the nation’s estimated three million vacant positions in science, technology, engineering and math — or what are now called STEM jobs. Reversing the decline in skilled trades is often cited as crucial to reducing unemployment and keeping the United States competitive in the global economy.
“For the first time we have a younger generation coming up who are less prepared educationally for the world that we have created,” said Edward Gordon, of Chicago, who wrote the book “Winning the Global Talent Showdown.”
Mr. Gordon estimated that by 2020 the number of vacant STEM jobs could rise to between 12 and 24 million.
“We are talking here about a significant drag on the U.S. economy,” he said.
Though the school’s curriculum is loaded with liberal arts courses, like black history and world literature, students are also required to graduate with two nationally recognized manufacturing credentials granted by the National Institute for Metalworking Skills. The documents affirm their competency to employers in fields where entry-level salaries can reach $65,000.
“We find in our education system to have a bias toward college prep,” Mr. Vogal said. “There are different options.”
A representative of Chicago Public Schools said officials there support the concept of career academies, yet administrators at Austin Polytech said it had been a challenge to get the school’s staff fully behind the vocational agenda. The biggest obstacle, Mr. Swinney said, is the outdated view of manufacturing as consisting mainly of unskilled, low-paying jobs, rather than the high-tech positions they have become, offering skilled workers secure employment and good salaries.
“Where we have gotten push-back is they see us as shuttling students to be a cog in a wheel,” said Erica Swinney, Mr. Swinney’s daughter and the director of career and community programs at Austin Polytech.
Steven McIlrath, Austin Polytech’s math teacher, said he did not object to careers in the trades. “Making stuff is a good honest living — there is nothing wrong with that,” said Mr. McIlrath, who lives in the neighborhood and has worked in the building for the last 16 years. “But my caution with that is that we can’t be a sorting machine.”
Hudson Precision Products Company in Broadview, where Deandre Joyce spent his summer as an intern, is one of the school’s 65 partners. Most of the partners are private companies based in Chicago that have donated money to the school for equipment, as well as for teaching and administrative positions. Polytech’s machine room, filled with manual as well as computer-controlled machines, was financed with donations totaling nearly $100,000 from WaterSaver Faucet Company and the Tooling and Manufacturing Association.
“What is amazing is that in the middle of a recession you have private-sector investment in public education on the West Side of Chicago,” Mr. Swinney said.
As the bus headed to McCormick Place, it passed near the abandoned Brach’s Candy factory, which was closed in 2003 and relocated to Dallas. With its 3,700 jobs, it was once the heart of Austin’s vibrant manufacturing industry. Now it is better known for being blown up during the filming of “The Dark Knight.”
When the students arrived at the convention center, 11 miles from where they had started, they filed into the show wearing badges printed with “Future Customer” in place of their names. In 1980, 90 percent of the exhibitors were American companies; now about 10 percent are.
The students watched robots playing blackjack and making small metal airplanes, which a robot then handed to a few lucky observers. As they walked by the Hardinge Inc. booth, a Brazilian employee with a thick accent pointed at the group of students. “The future,” he said.
Reporter Ash-har Quraishi‘s video companion piece, which aired on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” program:
Photo gallery by Photographer John Konstantaras:
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 6:04 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Congrats, Dan.
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