Unionwear and the Louise A. Spencer School in Newark deserve sincere congratulations for winning this year’s video competition, What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? This award, given annually, stimulates the imagination of students, inviting them to pursue careers in manufacturing. Its secondary aim is to boost the profiles of New Jersey’s factories.  A range of awards are bestowed by judges in each regional contest, and online votes for the Viewers’ Choice Award are tabulated at WhatsSoCool.org.

In 2013, Allentown Pennsylvania’s Manufacturer’s Research Center (MRC) created the What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? contest, and now hundreds of schools in the region participate. Teams of teachers, coaches, and students receive professional guidance, software, and camera equipment as they learn to edit, record, and script their video stories. The objective? To change students’ perceptions of manufacturing careers.

The winning video, which runs two minutes and 30 seconds, begins with several schoolgirls admiring a shirt worn by one of them and discussing where it came from. Realizing that anything purchased from “the mall” originates from somewhere else, they ponder what goes into the manufacturing process. Enter Unionwear and Mitch Cahn, President. He discusses his manufacturing company and how it works.

The video also features Agi Tamrakar, a recent graduate of NJIT who elaborates on his education and internship with Unionwear. Upon completing his masters, he accepted a permanent, full-time position at Unionwear.  Mr. Tamrakar also explores the many facets of the manufacturing industry. The video concludes with the original schoolchildren reiterating how cool manufacturing is. The video is informative and enjoyable, and the performance given by the schoolchildren is admirable.

Dream It, Do It promotes advanced careers in manufacturing for educators, adult family members, and students. Dream It, Do It is a companion of the What So Cool About Manufacturing? video contest and provides career resources. Additionally, Dream It, Do It selects and manages a dream team of dynamic manufacturing professionals. This team makes presentations at community locations and schools for students and teachers.