Compass Academy students get first hand look at world of manufacturing in St. Charles

Compass Academy student Brian Zuckerman watched with interest as plastic cups used at establishments such as Starbucks and Wendy’s rolled off the assembly lines at the Pactiv Evergreen manufacturing facility in St. Charles.

On Oct. 26, Compass Academy teamed with the St. Charles Area Chamber of Commerce’s Industrial Committee to introduce students to manufacturing careers while connecting them with local companies and their products. Compass Academy is a competency-based and career pathway public high school of choice in District 303 that is accredited by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Compass Academy opened in the fall of 2021 at the Haines Center. Along with taking a tour of Pactiv’s facility, students toured two other manufacturing facilities in St. Charles – Bison Gear & Engineering and Tek Pak.

“I think this was a great field trip for learning more about manufacturing,” Zuckerman said.

Before touring the Pactiv plant, he didn’t know how cups were manufactured.

“It was a really cool thing to learn about,” Zuckerman said.

This was the first time since 2019 that students had the opportunity to tour manufacturing facilities in person. The last two years featured virtual presentations because of the pandemic.

Laura Swarts, who chairs the Chamber’s Industrial Committee, is happy the in-person tours have returned.

“There’s a special kind of energy when you’re in a manufacturing facility, just hearing the machines running and seeing all the people moving around,” she said. “When we had no other choice, having the virtual event was great, but I would much rather have students in a facility and seeing what’s going on.”

The committee wants to show students what options are available for them after they graduate.

“We’re not discouraging anybody from going to college, but there are lots of opportunities for great strong careers in manufacturing that don’t require you go to a four-year university,” Swarts said. “You can go to a local community college like [Elgin Community College] or Waubonsee and get certified to be a CNC machine operator or a programmer. And most of these manufacturers, these local ones, will pay for your college.”

Brenna Ohlson, a counselor at Compass Academy, was happy the students were able to be part of the experience.

“Our kids are really curious and really smart, so they’ve asked some really nice questions,” she said. “We’re building and engineering a manufacturing pathway through Compass. Part of that is getting to see those big machines that we have in our building in action in real life so they can really apply that knowledge to what they do in the classroom every day. This just has opened their minds to all the different ways what they are learning about can be used.”