New Hope high school student earns CSWA certification by Kristen Dechert When David Newton, a junior at New Hope High School, graduates in 2013, he will already be ahead of many engineering students at community colleges and universities around the state. In addition to his regular school work, Newton found time this past year to become a Certified SolidWorks Associate, a designation typically attained by college students and professionals in engineering fields. SolidWorks certification gives Newton a wide range of career opportunities in the fields of manufacturing, product development, engineering services, equipment design, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and piping, oil and gas, industrial machinery and more. Twenty-first century companies require competitive engineering capabilities, and Newton’s early certification helps him stand out to industry job hunters.
“I found [SolidWorks] interesting, and since my dad works with SolidWorks at his job, he encouraged me to take the exam.”
This CD contained a number of SolidWorks tutorials that Newton completed. “I could say I prepared for [the certification test] a whole school year because that’s how long it took me to complete the tutorials,” said Newton. Much of the work Newton did at home was relevant to class work in Browning’s Technology Applications course. Using the SolidWorks platform, Newton and other students in the class “were allowed to freelance by designing their own projects and printing some of them in class,” said Browning. Some of the objects designed were full-scale yo-yos, name plates and model cars with individual parts. “Anything the students chose to draw was scaled down and printed using the 3-D printer,” Browning said. Having students like Newton is a boon for Mississippi. Regardless of their future goals, students capable of becoming CSWA certified gain skills that are valuable in high school, college and the workplace. Browning said, “The benefits [of CSWA certification to a high school student] are that the student is able to read highly technical information … and is highly capable of comprehending what he has read and apply it to some type of engineering concept.” Browning went on to explain that “[SolidWorks] causes the student to use the creative and synthesis functions of cognitive learning more so than a normal program of study.” Graduating students with these capabilities can improve postsecondary education and industry statewide.
STUDENT
Meridian High School seniors job shadow in their fields of interest
Spotlight
While taking Deidre Bland’s Career Pathways Experience course at Ross Collins Career and Technical Center, Aubrey Williams job shadowed Justin Cobb, an area attorney, to learn about a career in law. After graduating from high school and college, Williams hopes to attend law school and become a practicing lawyer. Also a student in Bland’s CPE course, David Hughes shadowed Dr. Sonny Rush, an orthopedic surgeon in the area. Hughes was able to shadow Rush on clinic and surgery days. After he finishes his schooling, Hughes hopes to become a physical therapist. Another of Bland’s students, Lesslie Evans hopes to become a pediatrician one day. To learn about the pediatric medical field, Evans shadowed Dr. Britt McCarty, a pediatric dentist in Meridian.
CSWA certification gives Newton an edge on college students as well. When he begins his university studies in engineering, he will already be familiar with SolidWorks and prepared for the classes that utilize it for modeling and simulation. Using his CSWA status, he will also be qualified to work in the field while in college. When asked why he wanted to earn the certification, Newton replied, “I found [SolidWorks] interesting, and since my dad works with SolidWorks at his job, he encouraged me to take the exam.” Newton was introduced to SolidWorks software in his Technology Applications course, taught by Danny Browning. In this course, Browning taught Newton and the other students SolidWorks basics that helped Newton in his preparation for the certification exam. Browning may have introduced Newton to the program, but Newton completed the certification work all on his own. “David was given a CD that contained the student version that could be installed on his home computer,” said Browning. Page 6
Newton plans to attend the University of Alabama to study electrical and computer engineering or entrepreneurship. He said, “[CSWA certification] gives me a head start of what I will be doing in real-life engineering. It also gives me many job opportunities and scholarships.” Browning said, “[CSWA] certification and the two higher levels are a must when entering the field of engineering because all engineering studies require detailed analysis of any system that is designed or invented by the engineer.” With the first level under his belt, Newton is well on his way to success in an engineering field, but he isn’t ready to stop Page 7 just yet.