STEM enthusiasts and curious teens and adults moved into Ventura College’s Applied Science department, gearing up for MADE in VC 2016, an event put on by Ventura College to highlight manufacturing jobs in Ventura County.

Students enrolled in Foothill’s Design Tech (D-Tech) Academy program went to this event as a field trip.

The event “really got me thinking about what I could do here,” D-Tech junior Andres Coppa said.  

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This event consisted of two main parts: a keynote presentation given by Jeremy Bout, TV producer of the show “Edge Factor,” and a showcase of local manufacturers and educational institutes.

Bout, a Canadian producer who was involved with manufacturing early in life, opened his presentation with a personal story. He discussed his journey from a snowboard loving kid to working in manufacturing. Ultimately manufacturing brought out Bout’s artistic side, which lead him to production.

Bout spoke on real life examples of manufacturing that impact people’s lives similar to what is found in his show, “Edge Factor.” He focused on two main examples: college students working on cheap forms of transport for the people of Cameroon and high schoolers using manufacturing techniques to build components that get sent up to satellites.

He continued by discussing the importance of taking the risk and exploring new possibilities as a way to learn about yourself.

“Sometimes you just have to take risks and you have to go for something and you may be scared that people are going to laugh. Maybe you don’t know whether your idea is good or not and maybe that you’re going to fail,” Bout said.

He also gave them encouragement in their times of failure.

“Figure out where you made your mistake, get back to the beginning. Try it again, over and over until you’re able to find some level of success,” Bout said.

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After the keynote presentation, the audience was let out and free to check out stands of manufactured work done in Ventura.

D-Tech senior Natalie Weingart thought it was “really neat that we have so many opportunities here in Ventura.”