Explore the New Manufacturing Academy hosted a group of middle school students and area manufacturers to investigate some of the diverse and fantastic career opportunities that help West Virginia manufacturers deliver their products to the world.

Four local middle schools participated in a series of 30-minute hands-on learning labs designed to provide a cool snapshot of the manufacturing process needed to create West Virginia-made products. Manufacturers provided insight into how employees make a difference in the success of the company. As part of the lab, students learned about the basic skills most workers need to accomplish their jobs. Local community and technical students were on hand to serve as mentors and to assist the with learning labs. RCBI provided all students with a tour of their facility to help highlight available training and educational options. The day wrapped up with a 20-minute team challenge exercise designed to help students understand the value of collaboration and communication.

Explore the New Manufacturing is putting this question to the test with the Manufacturing Innovation Challenge. Partnering with West Virginia businesses, Manufacturing Innovation Challenge projects give high school teams the opportunity to find solutions to a real-world manufacturing problem. Teams tackle existing product problems and develop the application of concept ideas. Each challenge is unique and can come from various aspects of the company's operations. All projects are aligned with West Virginia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards, curriculum, project-based learning efforts, and career exploration programs.

The past year has been a whirlwind of uncertainty and adaptability for the Explore the New Manufacturing Program and our manufacturing and educational partners. Our main concern quickly became what we could do to support teachers and their students when normalcy was no longer something that anyone could take for granted.In reflection, the Explore team's pivots throughout 2020-2021 allowed us to develop a new virtual program and introduce a new high school program while flexing existing programming to accommodate virtual tools.We ended the year stronger and are ready for the next challenge.