SME Education Foundation supports SME PRIME schools with sustainability grants

The SME Education Foundation has recognized 16 SME PRIME schools that excel at providing STEM/CTE manufacturing knowledge and skills to students by awarding the schools sustaining financial support to help underwrite materials and operating costs.

Supported and informed by private industry, SME PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) builds cost-effective and tailored manufacturing/engineering programs in high schools across the country, providing equipment, curriculum, professional development, scholarships, and manufacturing-focused extra-curricular activities to students and teachers, according to the foundation.

Nationwide, the SME Education Foundation provides manufacturing and engineering education to thousands of students at more than 81 schools in 22 states.

“Our SME PRIME schools program partners with schools and manufacturers in communities across the United States to connect high-school-age students with the manufacturing education they’ll need to secure a satisfying career in manufacturing upon graduation,” said SME Education Foundation Vice President Rob Luce. “These sustaining funds will help ensure that the SME PRIME programs that have launched in these schools have the operating funds that they need going forward for materials, tools, and equipment to ensure the momentum they need to be successful.”

Luce said the PRIME schools receiving these grants operate programs developed in years past, utilizing donations previously raised by the Foundation. The sustainability awards are additional dollars to help the schools maintain their programs going forward after the initial development funding was invested.

“It’s part of our emphasis on ‘partnership,’ which is the ‘P’ in the PRIME acronym,” he said. “We’re looking to maintain long-term relationships with these schools – to provide long-term value – so that these programs continue feeding the manufacturing talent pipeline.”

Schools receiving SME PRIME sustainability awards for 2022 were:

• Hollenstein Career and Technology Center, Fort Worth, Texas
• Hopewell High School, Huntersville, North Carolina
• Middleton High School, Tampa, Florida
• STMA High School, St. Michael, Minnesota
• Walker Career Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Indiana County Technology Center, Indiana, Pennsylvania
• East Cooper Center for Advanced Studies (formerly Wando High School) Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
• Wheeling High School, Wheeling, Illinois
• Capital High School, Helena, Montana
• Grand Haven, Grand Haven, Michigan
• Whitehall, Whitehall, Michigan
• Romeo, Romeo, Michigan
• Racine Washington Park, Racine, Wisconsin
• Central Columbia, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
• Four Cities Compact, includes Barberton and Wadsworth
• Barberton HS, Barberton, Ohio
• Wadsworth, Wadsworth, Ohio

“Students in the SME PRIME program today are preparing to be the advanced manufacturing leaders of tomorrow,” said Luce. “We’re thrilled to provide support to these maturing programs and the educators and students who participate in them.”

The 2021 SME PRIME Outcomes Report indicates that 89% of SME PRIME seniors nationwide pursued careers or education in manufacturing or engineering upon graduation.”