Wisconsin chapter gives back, donates $220,000 in five years.

Starting at the grade school level and working up to college students, this AFS chapter is recruiting tomorrow's foundry workers.

Faced with watching tomorrow's most precious resource--workers--slip into a skill-deficient state, the AFS Wisconsin Chapter has worked diligently over the past five years to give something back to the community that has supplied its foundries over the years. Since 1987, the chapter has donated more than $220,000 to "educating its own."

The largest part of the chapter's monetary donations came via scholarships. A total of $71,000 was donated through the Foundry Educational Foundation and the chapter's own Past President Scholarship. The Past President Scholarship is a nontraditional scholarship awarded to a high school or trade school student interested in learning more about the foundry industry, or a foundry employee who wants to further him/herself in the industry.

The Barker Scholarship, a self-supporting scholarship that goes to graduate students at the university level, has provided students with $72,000. Awarded to students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, it is a $3000/year scholarship, plus a $1000 loan that is forgivable if the recipients pursue a metalcasting career.

The chapter donated $41,000 in training programs. These funds were included for Milwaukee Area Technical College Skill Olympics and instructor training programs, apprenticeships and to other programs.

Research grants were also awarded to both UW campuses. This $34,000 allows faculty and students to continue research projects for the industry.

The chapter has also worked to spread good will throughout the community. It donated $2500 for a job fair at Greater Galilee Baptist Church on Milwaukee's north side, and was invited to display and exhibit the benefits of working in foundries.

The chapter also provided funds to a community affairs program in Milwaukee's south side, where many foundries are located. It initiated an annual statewide "Teacher of the Year" award that honors an instructor at any level who promotes foundry skills. In addition, it regularly sends equipment and supplies to Lincoln Hills School in northern Wisconsin for use in its foundry training program.

Nearly all the funds for these donations were generated from the chapter's Mini-Expo, held every year at the Wisconsin Regional Conference.

Another Route for Students

Perhaps an even bigger contribution to securing qualified personnel for the future of the foundry industry has been the chapter's efforts in placing industrial training back into the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system.

A year ago, the chapter worked to get manufacturing technology courses included in the regular curriculum, which had been dropped as school budgets concentrated on college prep classes. Chapter members wrote curriculum and recruited other areas of industry to participate.

Their manufacturing technology program is an integrated system that involves English, math, chemistry and sales, and how each subject directly relates to industrial careers.

"Traditional administrators weren't tickled about the program," said Manufacturing Technology Chairman Jerry Dziedzic, Pelton Casteel Co. "But their mindset was forgetting a big segment of the kids. Through lobbying and support from the industry, they've come around."

This fall, every public school in Wisconsin is required to have a manufacturing technology curriculum. "We forced the issue and now every school has it," Dziedzic said. "We're tapping the 75% that can't go to college."

The chapter is now a liaison between industry and MPS. Its members volunteer for mentor programs and teach classes. Instructors from the chapter include: Bill Schultz, Milwaukee Chaplet and Manufacturing Co.; Steve Scheil, Kohler Co.; Ed Wabiszewski, Maynard Steel Co.; and Dziedzic and Cindy Alix, Pelton. Foundries also pick up kids by buses and bring them to visit their plants.

"We want students with no hope of going to college to be trained, made available and interested in the industry," Dziedzic said. "It takes away from the frustration with college prep classes and then having no marketable job skills."

When the MPS program began two years ago, it had 60 students. "Now we have 600," Dziedzic said. "It starts with the grade schools--letting them know we're out there--and then building on it in the junior and senior high schools. We're tapping low and teaching them the opportunities of working in industry."

Through the work with MPS and the scholarship funds, the chapter feels it has covered all local educational bases. "We focus not only on college-bound students, but also entry level," he said. "We serve the community by taking them in, educating them and then getting them jobs in the foundry."