Waverly-Shell Rock girls aged 13-15 have the opportunity to take part in the 2025 summer manufacturing camp sponsored by the school next Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17-18.
And, thanks to a donation by 2011 graduate Samuel Hartman, who took engineering classes at W-SR, the $60-per-student cost will be covered for everyone, up to 16 enrollees.
“We’re kind of targeting the middle school girls, to try to get them more involved with hands-on activities involved with manufacturing and technology,” said instructor Bryan Benham, who teaches industrial technology and engineering at W-SR high school.
The school had offered the girls summer camp before COVID, but during the pandemic, it “fizzled out.” They brought it back last year, when seven girls participated.
“It was awesome,” Benham said. There was “a really good response from the kids that were involved, as well as the businesses that we got involved.”
Local businesses are highlighted when the teachers take the girls to tour a facility, as well as when female speakers come to the school. Last year the camp welcomed female engineers and managers from Nestle and Unverferth to share their insights. The girls also toured United Equipment.
According to Benham, the speakers share what their facilities look like, what manufacturing looks like, and how the women, specifically, are making a difference in their work places.
“A lot of times we think of [manufacturing] as being male-dominated,” he said. “Our goal is really to try to open everybody’s eyes to the fact that it’s everybody. Everybody can be involved with this type of work.”
Benham, who has three daughters, strongly supports girls and women in technology.
“I think girls think differently than guys,” he said. “I think they have a more creative, passionate side that can really open up different solutions to problems.”
According to Benham, the summer camp may already be bearing fruit. Last school year, W-SR had more girls in the ninth-grade introductory industrial arts and technology courses than previously.
“We want more, because we just like that diversity,” he said. Historically, those types of classes have been male-dominated. But “when we start adding girls into it, it really changes the dynamic of what the class is and how things get made and ideas that people make. It’s really fun.”
He noted that in the manufacturing world, clients often bring to a company a solution to a problem, and the company’s goal is to figure out the best way to make that solution.
“But in a high school setting, we actually work more on the creative side, because we’re trying to solve actual problems,” Benham said.
For projects in the summer camp, students will use a laser engraver to make a sign, as well as using a CNC plasma cutter to create a sculpted metal flower.
“They’re going to cut that out, and then they’re going to bend and shape those petals by hand,” he said, “and they’re going to weld them together to form a three-dimensional metal rose.”
Depending on time, students might also create a “rustic” sign using the plasma cutter and tools in the wood shop on reclaimed lumber.
“Everyone does all the projects. The girls do all the work to create it,” Benham said. “There’s two instructors that will be there. Safety’s our number one goal.”
The other teacher is Andrew Snyder, who also teaches industrial technology at W-SR.
Camp hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., meeting in the W-SR shop room. Lunch is included for one of the days, and students should bring a sack lunch for the other day. Up to 16 girls may enroll in the camp, with no fee because of the alumnus benefactor.
Contact Benham at bryan.benham@wsr.k12.ia.us for more information.
“We still have room,” Behnam said on June 10. “We’re trying to fill those spots.”
