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SJ High Student Lauded by EAGLE Technologies

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The future certainly looks bright for a budding young engineer from St. Joseph High School, and his story is one that Michigan educators and manufacturers alike can point to with great pride.

In a scenario that can hopefully be replicated many times over, SJHS Senior Mitchel Grier was recently acknowledged by EAGLE Technologies Group on Red Arrow Highway in Shoreham and Bridgman for a design he created for the factory automation company. That’s exactly what the major focus on STEM and skilled trades training is all about.

Michael L. Zimanski, Project Manager at EAGLE Technologies Group says, “EAGLE Technologies Group wishes to acknowledge and thank the industrial design team at Saint Joseph High School for helping design and commission a custom three-dimensional shipping cap for one of our customer’s differential products.”

Zimanski adds, “The results from the young engineer, Mr. Mitchel Grier, and guidance by Mr. Victor Vroegop at the high school were outstanding! This team helped EAGLE with a tight delivery and produced a very happy customer for us. We look forward to finding other opportunities for the high school team to help us with in the future.”

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High School Industrial Arts teacher Vic Vroegop tells us, “Having real life design challenges is something that I include in all CAD and Engineering classes. I strive to teach more than technical skills, I try to teach students how to think creatively and innovatively. Mitchel saw an efficient solution using minimal material right away.  He had his complex shape modeled in SolidWorks in about 40 minutes. After that, prototypes were printed on our 3D printers to fine tune the fit based on the Nylon shrink rate on a 3 D printer. The whole design process and interaction with a real customer expressing their product needs was a great learning experience for the whole class.  Mitchel plans to pursue engineering and design after high school.”

The expertise of a sharp student and a skilled trades class leader combined with a major company willing to seek help from the program are living proof that Michigan can continue to lead the way in advanced manufacturing across the nation. There will likely be multiple companies in hot pursuit of Mr. Mitchel, eager to follow his progress and recruit to their own teams down the line.