THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611050142
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY BARBARA J. WOERNER, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 178 lines
BAYSIDE HIGH JUNIOR Kahlil Jones surveyed the view while standing on top of the circular platform that surrounds one of the tallest trees on the ropes course in Chesapeake's Northwest River Park.
The platform - 45 feet above terra firma - was the height of a five-story building. There were two choices for getting down: a breathtaking ride hooked to a zip line, or going back the way he came up, which meant making an arduous climb down a small swinging ladder, a slide down a long rope and back across a shaky rope bridge.
As Jones stood poised to plunge into thin air with nothing but a line from his climber's harness hooking him to the steel cable for support, shouts of encouragement from his fellow Bayside High School classmates and instructors echoed through the quiet autumn woods.
It was more than simply a fun Saturday outing that drew this group to the ropes course. It was an exercise in team building and cooperation among students and instructors currently involved in a program of study known as the Ford Academy of Manufacturing Sciences, which has now expanded to three Virginia Beach high schools.
``Sure, this isn't a required part of the FAMS core curriculum,'' said Tim Kennedy, technology education teacher at Bayside High School. ``Activities like this bond us together, teach us how to solve problems as a team and help us to focus more clearly on our goals.''
Bayside High School, with 13 juniors in the first semester of the FAMS program, is the third Beach school (along with Salem and Kellam) to embrace the core curriculum of the program and put it into practice. Through the unique mixing of classes - manufacturing, statistical process control, principles of technology and case studies in manufacturing - aligned with a summer internship in the manufacturing sector, the schools hope to turn out students ready to move into the changing world of manufacturing. They can go right onto an assembly line or to college to continue the educational process.
In fact, an assembly line is exactly where Kennedy and his students gathered recently. They toured the Norfolk Ford plant.
FAMS students talked with supervisory and management personnel while touring the plant. They also got a glimpse of why the program of study they have chosen is so important.
``Companies are spending so much money retraining the work force and we can turn them out with this program ready to go,'' Kennedy said. / Back at the ropes course, Jones finally lunged off the 45-foot-high platform, remembering to tuck his knees up close to his chest. For several seconds, the rush of air screaming past his ears was all he heard as he plummeted down toward another solid-looking tree, the end of the zip line. Classmates helped him unhook at the bottom.
On the ground, Jones danced in small jubilant circles and high-fived everyone he could reach. ``I'm going again. I've got to do that again,'' he said.
At Salem High School, FAMS students are concentrating on team building and problem solving in a different way. They start right into a Total Quality Management Class, where problem-solving is worked on from the team approach using the tenets of Edward Demming's technique before tackling the core classes recommended by Ford. The school's version - a sort of FAMS deluxe - also added an economics class and is piloting a new informations systems class that may in time become a fifth core class added by Ford to its curriculum.
``We made a few additions to the core classes in order to enhance the FAMS program,'' said Ernie Sawyer, assistant principal. ``We feel that what we're teaching here will have an impact on the students and their employers.''
Sawyer said he believes that more companies should sit up and take notice. Calling the FAMS program in Virginia Beach a diamond in the rough, many believe there is a wealth of hidden potential within the emerging work force who currently sit behind school desks. There is even the whispered hope that high schools with the FAMS program could be a link in attracting more companies to the area - especially companies in the Fortune 500 category.
Although the FAMS program is 6 years old nationwide, there is no measurement, statistical or otherwise, to gauge where early graduates of the program are now.
Larry Bruno, FAMS program manager in Dearborn, Mich., is one of two people at Ford who oversee the program on a nationwide basis. Last year, there were 49 schools in 16 states that implemented FAMS. This year, the number swelled to 70 schools in 20 states. Virginia Beach has no plans to expand the program within the next two years.
``We're in the midst of both data collection and program expansion with FAMS,'' Bruno said. ``We assist schools in the start-up of the program but, it's their call on how and when to implement.''
Bruno cited the success of the program on the feedback he receives from teachers, administrators and the individual success stories of students who intern with companies. He mentioned cases such as Salem High School senior Luke Raymor's internship last summer with Chesapeake Hardwood Products Inc.
Raymor said: ``Originally, I was supposed to shadow the manufacturing manager, and for two weeks he filled my head with everything he knew. He had been there for 10 years and my third week there he took another job without giving a lot of notice.''
Caught off guard, the plant manager came to Raymor to see what he could do to help in the interim period until the company hired another manufacturing manager.
``Basically, no one in the plant had the time to step in and learn to fill his shoes,'' Raymor said. Since the teen was computer literate and had learned a lot from the manufacturing manager in the time they were together, he was able to step in and handle much of the work dealing with the government spread sheets that dealt with emissions and environmental standards. During the two months he filled in, he also worked with incoming orders and helped design an exhaust system.
Internships in manufacturing settings are the feathers-in-the-cap of the FAMS program. Such an internship is worth one-half credit toward graduation and all three high schools involved in the program agree that finding them and arranging them is the hardest part.
``Getting students into an industrial situation was very challenging,'' said Wilda Stevens, FAMS intern coordinator at Salem High School. ``It's the hardest thing I've ever done in education.''
Roadblocks to placing interns include company insurance policies that do not cover minors in the work place, wading through the bureaucracy of the larger companies and child-labor laws.
In spite of the problems, Stevens placed 30 FAMS students in summer internships this past year.
``Child-labor laws prevent a child under 18 years of age from exposure or placement in a hazardous environment,'' she said. ``We just kept working with five manufacturing concerns in the area and once we got them to take an intern into a nonhazardous environment, it turned out to be a wonderful experience for our students.''
Because of insurance regulations in Virginia, workers under 18 cannot be insured. That means students can end up spending their internships working in an office instead of a manufacturing settings.
John Emry, a member of the FAMS Advisory Group, is among those that hope to see a change in the insurance law.
``Other states with the FAMS program do not have this problem,'' he said. ``We need to be able to get this changed so our students can be hired, insured and get the full benefit of the internships.''
The FAMS program gets the thumbs up from staff and students alike.
``How do you measure success in this case,'' said Sawyer. ``To us, the increased grade point averages, attendance being up and the overall enthusiasm of the students in this program are major indicators that we are on the right track with this.''
Skip Johnson, vice principal, and Rick Hailey, career technical guidance counselor at Kellam High School, envision the FAMS certificate as a stamp of approval, giving students the edge in being hired.
``This is an excellent opportunity for students in their career choices,'' said Hailey. ``It's almost like the FAMS certificate is a proof of purchase to a prospective employer.''
Down the Kellam High hallway, in Mike Vanture's manufacturing class, students busily worked on self-designed and manufactured jigs and fixtures with precision cut parts.
``The first one has to be just like the 20th,'' Vanture said. ``In here, we get the feel of an assembly line and we actually troubleshoot the problems either in the design or the manufacturing process as they come up.
``The old shop concept is nonexistent. Now everything is high tech,'' Vanture added. ``FAMS is part of the wave of the future. It's helping students transcend the changing workplace.''
James Eggert, a Kellam junior, took an interest in the program after Johnson came to his math class and talked about it.
``I know this program doesn't necessarily get you a job with Ford, but the seal on the diploma and the internship experience will definitely be a plus,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by MORT FRYMAN
Bayside High industrial arts teacher Tim Kenkedy, far left, and
students Jason Rhoads and Khalil Jones, center foreground, peer into
what will become Ford F-150 pickup truck at the Ford plant in
Norfolk.
A group of Bayside High School students and their teachers watch a
chassis section move along the assembly line during a tour the Ford
plant in Norfolk.
Patrice Knight takes notes during the tour. FAMS students also had a
chance to talk with management.
BELOW: Dennis Simon make holes in a plastic handle on the ``assembly
line'' at Kellam, where ``the first one has to be just like the
20th,'' Vanture said.
And here's the finished product: a ``Do Nothing Machine,'' the
result of a team effort by Mike Vanture's FAMS students at Kellam.
AT RIGHT: Kellam students Kelvin Myers, left, and Jessica James
watch as instructor Mike Vanture shows them the correct way to use a
gig to make the handle for a machine they are constructing in the
Ford Academy of Manufacuring Sciences program. by CNB