After spending seven years in the Army jumping out of airplanes, Robert Simms was ready for a change. When he left the military he was unsure where life might take him, but now he spends his time building parts for planes instead of jumping out of them.
When Simms returned to his home of Palestine, IL, in 2010, he had already been all over the world as a parachutist, including Iraq, but was initially unable to find a career he enjoyed. Eventually, some friends introduced him to Flying S, Inc., an aerospace engineering company in his hometown which, in turn, led him to Vincennes University's (VU) CNC Machinist NOW program. This program strives to educate and help build CNC machining careers for returning veterans, who are more likely to be unemployed than other groups. "Veteran students have a lot of self-discipline and dedication, and they are hard workers," said Doug Bowman, a VU alumnus and leader of the program. "It is an honor to work with them."
After just 16 weeks, Simms had completed the program, saying that the attention to detail he learned in the Army proved to be very useful. Even though he had no experience in the field when he started, he is now programming machines and making parts for Flying S. "It is not just another job, it is definitely a career," Simms said. "They are really good teachers and they are very dedicated; they want to make this work. I recommend this program for others - for veterans who do not know where they are going or what they want to do. Our Army training fits really well with this program."
Going beyond enabling returning veterans to enter high-demand careers as machinists, VU's CNC students recently completed a class project that will help people walk again. Through a collaboration between Bowman and Brian Copes, a VU alumnus now teaching at Calera High School in Alabama, VU students machined 20 prosthetic legs that will soon be sent to patients in Honduras. Backed by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation, which had designated Calera High School a PRIME school for its exemplary approach to manufacturing education, Copes' high school students successfully designed a prosthetic leg made out of car parts.
Pam Hurt, Senior Manager of SME Education Foundation, is proud of her organization's role. "People want to give back, and young kids in particular want to create a better world," she said. "It is an honor for the SME Education Foundation to provide both the funds and the SME members' support to programs like Calera and all of the PRIME schools." She and Rodney Grover, also of SME, played a role in bringing Copes and Bowman together to bring the project full circle to completion.
The SME Education Foundation recommended that VU manufacture the leg that the Calera students had designed, since she said VU's program was "the best in the country." VU stepped up to the challenge and worked to overcome the major problem with the prosthetic leg as designed - its heavy weight. VU students replaced some metal parts with lighter, Haas 5-axis machined plastic parts and reduced the weight of the leg by three pounds. Curbell Plastics of Orchard Park, NY, donated $18,000 in high strength plastic for the project. The 20 legs that were manufactured this spring at the VU Haas Technical Education Center will be sent on a mission trip to help Honduras families in need.
"I love what I am doing," Copes said. He also wants to make sure that people know the truth about manufacturing. "I think there is still a stigma that manufacturing is just a dirty job, but I know that in our area the different factories are helping to change that mentality."
VU graduates like Bowman and Copes continue to help not only the manufacturing industry, but also the community and beyond. "Doug understands very much that he is addressing an industry need; he understands what is required in the classroom to make it interesting. He engages with the industry to pull them into the entire process, closing the loop between education, training, companies and government, very clearly," said Hurt.
For more information contact:
Robert Hudson
Director - Business and Industry
Vincennes University
1002 N First St
Vincennes, IN 47591
812-888-4297
rhudson@vinu.edu
www.vinu.edu/workforce