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CCCTC cuts ribbon on ‘career exploration mobile unit’

By EVAN HOUK 5 min read

LISBON -- The Columbiana County Career and Technical Center (CCCTC) hosted state and county government officials, school district superintendents, school board members, and Youngstown State University President Bill Johnson for a ribbon-cutting on its "career exploration mobile unit" on March 14.

Chris Jackson, a CCCTC auto collision repair student from Beaver Local School District, and Beaver Local Superintendent Eric Lowe stood at the center of the large crowd that gathered for the ceremony and did the honors of cutting the ribbon.

"This project would not have been possible without our partnerships with the Columbiana County ESC (Educational Service Center), Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, Jack Scott and his team at Vista AST, and so many supporters from our community," a Facebook post from CCCTC about the event read.

The career mobile unit consists of five wheeled carts loaded with virtual reality hardware and tools for hands-on activities to simulate different programs at CCCTC for prospective students to explore-- like welding, agriculture, manufacturing/robotics, transportation, and renewable energy.

"These activities have been developed on mobile carts that can be used both on our mobile unit trailer that's outside or wheeled into different classrooms," Assistant Superintendent Jeremy Corbisello said.

The mobile units will be beta-tested at Beaver Local School District in Leetonia through the end of the school year so that students and technical staff can provide feedback and make improvements for fall implementation.

Starting in the fall at the beginning of next school year, the mobile unit will begin traveling to CCCTC's nine partner school districts and other locations to provide students with hands-on career and technical experiences.

After the presentation and ribbon-cutting ceremony, Corbisello challenged Lisbon Exempted Village School District Superintendent Joseph Siefke to beat his score in the welding activity. The activity came equipped with an imitation welding mask one could wear and a virtual welding "torch" one holds and moves in front of a screen to weld along a predetermined line, testing their skill and aptitude. The activity felt similar to the Nintendo game Duck Hunt.

Corbisello explained that the school used grant funds from the state and from the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition to make the career exploration unit a reality.

He gave credit to John Dilling, an educational consultant for

Columbiana County ESC, for being a "visionary" who imagined the project and saw it through.

"Mr. Dilling has said ... 'we need to push career exploration opportunities down to the younger ages,'" Corbisello quoted. "He helped start this building back in 1977 and he was an amazing mentor to me."

Vista AST owner Smith explained the technology of the mobile units and how they were developed after the ribbon-cutting. Smith and his team constructed many parts of the simulation units using 3-D printers in the company's shop in Youngstown.

Vista AST is a technology company that "provides curriculum, equipment and support services to educators," according to its website.

The mobile units were custom-built at Corbisello's and Dilling's direction. Typically, Vista AST builds mobile "maker spaces," Smith said. All the carts have a challenge specific to the discipline they are simulating and can provide instructions to the user by audio or video.

"They're totally unique," Smith said.

State Representative and Crestview Local graduate Monica Robb Blasdel credited the staff for students' success and said the teachers at CCCTC look at career exploration as an "adventure."

"When you visit this facility, you can feel happiness and you can feel the support," Blasdel said.

Blasdel explained how Columbiana County schools are preparing young people for the future by helping them to first find their passion, the thing that "sets your soul on fire," and helping students to understand their strengths.

"Thank you for always being a champion for your students," Blasdel said to Corbisello as she handed him an official commendation from the Ohio House of Representatives.

Leetonia resident and State Sen. Michael Rulli said it is important for children, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the change in culture it provoked, to understand their "point of existence."

"You have to give them a reason to get out of the basement, get excited about life, and pursue that American Dream that we once had," Rulli said. "A lot of us were raised to believe that if you work really hard, you could have a better life than your mom and dad. Somewhere along the line that got lost."

Rulli said that CCCTC and its enthusiastic administrators and staff like Corbisello are "making it exciting to go to school again."

"Like they always said, 'if you go to work and you do something you love, you'll never work one day in your life."

YSU President and former U.S. Representative Bill Johnson agreed with Corbisello and Dilling that young people have to be introduced to career and technical education and other opportunities when they are as young as possible.

"We want our young people to get educated here, to get skilled here, because we want them to stay here," Johnson said.

Johnson talked about the innovation the United States has brought to the rest of the world since the Civil War and noted that a lot of countries in the world want to "take us off our perch as the world's dominant economy and the world's best problem-solver."

"If we want to maintain that edge, we've got to get the next generation of workforce prepared and we've got to start it earlier," Johnson said.

He stressed that the economy needs dreamers, engineers, and problem-solvers, just as much as it needs builders and people who work with their hands.

"We need the whole spectrum," Johnson said.

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