Toledo Technology Academy eighth-grader Xander Parent doesn’t know what his career path will be once he graduates from high school, but after learning about varying engineering tasks Friday while touring the TekniPlex Global Innovation Center in Holland, he believes he has an idea.
Walking through the TekniPlex plant, processing area, and lab, Xander and roughly 40 other students were shown how thermoplastic sheets were made to be molded for liners, seals, and containers for many of the items seen in grocery stores and health care.
But even more interesting to 14-year-old Xander was the various engineering tests and processes required to ensure the products met TekniPlex’s client needs and specifications.
“It’s really cool to see all this stuff that goes into everyday products,” he said. “I’m not really sure what career I really want to do yet, but I’ll definitely keep it in mind.”
Vandita Prasad, Toledo Technology Academy’s assistant director, said seventh, eighth, and ninth-grade students spent the day touring TekniPlex, the University of Toledo, Dana Inc., First Solar, and Owens Community College’s facilities to learn about different industries and career opportunities. Students in the other remaining grades likewise toured similar industry sites Thursday.
This semester marks the first time since the pandemic that students have taken such visits to discover the real-world applications of what they’re learning in the classroom. Many students typically don’t realize all the career options available until they see them during such tours, she said.
“These eighth-graders haven’t necessarily done what they’re seeing over here yet other than spending some time in the ninth-grade labs,” she said. “Engineering is a hard field to get into even at the college level because of the math and science, so we want to expose our students that early on so they’re able to connect those pieces in their pre-engineering labs and see how it connects to industrial engineering.”
When Guangda Shi, TekniPlex’s senior director of global innovation, asked students that morning before their tour whether any of them had heard of TekniPlex, all of them indicated they had not. But Mr. Shi didn’t take offense.
While the Holland location specializes in making the thermoplastic sheets, he said the global company — with locations that include Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, and throughout the United States, among others — creates packaging, inner gaskets, liners, and flexible seals that most people overlook.
Those are then used for products such as egg containers, coffee pods, medicine packages, and many others.
“You won’t see our name on them, but you have the products in your home, probably multiple products, made with some TekniPlex material,” he said. “There’s a lot of science involved in this — [and] if you like the materials, then this is the place that you want to know a little more about.”
Along with introducing students to the area science and engineering industries, Ms. Prasad said she also wanted to reconnect with company leaders and establish potential interning opportunities for her students.
“One of the gentlemen who was giving our tour was talking about students coming back and interning here when they are in college and I was telling him that our students are interning with businesses their senior year,” she said. “So maybe our seniors will get to intern here, if the company will allow, so I think bringing the students out here early is greatly beneficial.”
First Published March 24, 2023, 11:25 p.m.
