Crawford Tech hosts signing day for 64 students, employers

Jun. 1—Signing a letter of intent isn't just for high school athletes going on to play a sport in college.

For the past five years, it's been an integral and growing part of Crawford Tech, the county's technical career training high school.

On Wednesday, Crawford Tech honored 64 students who are heading directly into the workforce with employers in the region. That's more than double the 30 students celebrated in 2019, the inaugural year of its signing day event.

The ceremony has outgrown its original location — the cafeteria at Crawford Tech. The past couple of years it's been held in the auditorium of neighboring Meadville Area Senior High School due to the number of students and employers involved.

Signing day caps the academic careers of senior Crawford Tech students who are in cooperative education. The 64 students honored Wednesday are more than 37 percent of the 171 Crawford Tech seniors who have job commitments prior to graduation.

Cooperative education combines school-based education with practical work experience, giving school credit for the job experience and paying the students at the same time. Senior-year students are in the workforce at jobs based on their trades' career path.

Seniors who qualify for cooperative education attend their home high school a half-day, and work at an employer in a vocation the other half. Sophomore and junior students at Crawford Tech attend a half-day while the other half is spent at their high school.

Griffin Motors of Meadville, a local automotive dealership, has been involved with cooperative education and signing day for three years as a way to find new automotive repair technicians.

"It's a great program. We've had great success with two previous graduates," said Joseph King, service manager for Griffin Motors. "We're able to start the technician with a veteran technician to learn how things go and so far it's worked very well."

Robert Shreffler, who is graduating from Crawford Tech's auto mechanics program, has been working at Griffin Motors for about three weeks already through the cooperative education program.

He got interested in vehicles as a young child.

"I grew up around cars worked on by my family," Shreffler said. "It's the problem solving. I like the technical side."

Madison Runyan, who is graduating from Crawford Tech's health occupations program, has aspirations of becoming a registered nurse.

"It's something I've always wanted to do," she said of helping people by working in the health care field.

Runyan already has been working part time for about 90 days with Home Instead Inc., a local at-home health care provider.

"Madison is so kind, so caring, so compassionate," said Lauren Nader, the local recruitment coordinator with Home Instead. "She's just so wonderful in what she does."

Crawford Tech's signing day roots go back to 2019 at the suggestion of Bonnie Stein, the school's cooperative education coordinator, as a way to honor seniors entering the workforce and their respective employers.

In brief remarks, state Sen. Michele Brooks told the students that their career paths and commitment to working with local firms combines as one of the best ways to bring jobs to a community.

"We will not have employers who invest in community or invest in the local economy without a local workforce," she said.

Crawford County Commissioner Eric Henry, who serves on the six-county Northwest Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board, told the graduating students that technical jobs are very important.

Within a 25-mile radius of Meadville, currently there are more than 1,000 job openings including 50 in manufacturing, 65 in health care, 15 in mechanics and 10 in welding.

"Those numbers are just one of the many reasons why Crawford Tech is important," Henry said. "You students are important, your instructors are important, and your parents are important."

Listed below are the 64 Crawford Tech graduates and their employers honored Wednesday.

Kyle Lantz, Acutec Precision Aerospace Inc.; Layla Horton and Faith Peterson, Aella Salon & Day Spa; Dawson Osborn, Arrow Electric Inc.; Michael Smith, C & J Industries, Inc.; Morgan Litwiler, Casey's Ice Cream & Candies; Luke Stright, Channellock Inc.; Brady Campbell, Doren Inc.; Brooklyn Miller, Edinboro Manor; Chandler Davison and Miles Neal, Ferguson Construction Co.; Michael DeJohn, Fuller Building Group; Robert Shreffler, Griffin Motors; Emilee Hay, Hays for Days Beauty Shoppe; Hunter Dell'Antonio, Highpoint Tool and Machine;

Madison Runyan, Home Instead Inc.; Kaiden Boozer, Keystone Strength; Connor Smith, Lake View Ford; Noah Hayes, LandPro Equipment; Andrew Robinson, Layke Tool & Manufacturing Co.; Andrew Custead and Aiden Williams, Leech Carbide; Connor Perrye, Line-X of Crawford County; Kyleigh Wentz, MAJR Products; Alic Jackson, Matteson Heavy Equipment; Mackenzie Wallace, Optical Filters USA; Madison Allen, Hailey Delo, Celina Dennis and Ryan Urquhart, Meadville Medical Center; Mark Wright, O'Reilly Auto Parts; Emma Grieser and Robert Thomas, Palmiero Toyota;

Tristyn Hull and Hawk Post, Parker Hannifin Corp.; Hunter Craig, Pennco Tool and Die Inc.; Blake Boylan, Madison VanNort and Jeffrey Hershelman, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation; Austin Agnew, Peters' Heat Treating Inc.; Chase Miller, Phoenix Laser Solutions; Jayden Ishman, Pinnacle Molds; Dominic Fosco and Levi Miller, PS Furniture; Carter Bevilheimer, Bradley Fuhrer and Ethan Stright, R.E. Johnson Electric; Trent Roncaglione and Kyle White, Ram Tool Co. Inc.;

Austin Vanderhoff and Isaac William, Roser Technologies Inc.; Jack Rynd, Rynd Home Farm; Raelynn Lord and Madison Lewis, Sheetz; Alex Blake, Starn Tool & Mfg. Co.; Garrett Butryn, Sunset Memorials; Marie McKeown, The Hair Stop Salon; Lexus Dechant, Chloe Hickok, Molly Jackson, Arybella McCartney and Abigail Shiver, Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community; Connor Grace, Wimer Fuel Injection & Turbo; and Jazlyn Smith, Woodcock Dam Animal Clinic.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.