Dozens of Warsaw Area Career Center (WACC) students had their signing day Wednesday, but it wasn’t for athletics.
Instead, the students - who will be juniors and seniors next school year - were signing to take part in the RAMP (Regional Advance Manufacturing Pathway), cosmetology or automotive programs.
Emily Campbell, Warsaw Area Career Center assistant director, explained, “Basically, all day today we’re having a signing day first. We like to model it like we do for athletics, so it’s our kids who are going more into industry or trade work.”
RAMP
The first signing session was for the students entering their first year of the two-year RAMP program.
The mission of RAMP is to engage high school students in immersive learning experiences, through high-tech, industry integrated curriculum, preparing them for successful and rewarding careers in advanced manufacturing, according to information provided by OrthoWorx. Students in it will gain greater visibility to career options with the manufacturing sector in the region and the opportunities that exist with the established industries of orthopedics in this community.
Campbell said for first-year RAMP students, “they will work with industry partners. So the industry partners will come in and they’ll even be able to have opportunities to go on site and learn how the industry of engineering and manufacturing works in our community.”
WACC technology and engineering instructor Zach Harding is also the instructor for the RAMP program.
“Basically, what it is, is we train the students over the course of the year in basic manufacturing. The partners come in once a week for a class period and they teach the class with regards to everything from quality to schedules and delivery and everything in between for the manufacturing process,” he said.
It’s the first time industry was brought directly into the classroom to teach the students, Harding said. “It’s kind of a two-way because then, as industry is teaching the students, they’re actually getting to know the students and choosing who they want to hire for an internship. That’s kind of the carrot for the students: Once they make it through the RAMP program, they are brought on board either as an intern through college or possibly I know some this year are getting summer jobs and stuff like that,” he stated.
During their second year, students will participate in a capstone, paid internship at an industry partner.

    Warsaw Area Career Center juniors Mackenzie Campbell (R) and Addison Eastwood (L) signed for their second year in the RAMP program and will be doing Work-Based Learning at Zimmer Biomet. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“That second year, in the program, they go through an interview process with our industry partners, and then they will spend three periods (ish) in a work-based learning type of experience. They’ll actually go to that company,” Campbell said.
The RAMP program is partnered with Instrumental Machine & Development, Medartis, Precision Medical Technologies and Zimmer Biomet, according to OrthoWorx’s provided information.
For the second group of RAMP students, Campbell said five students were selected. “The kids interviewed with all of (the businesses), they got hired and next year they’ll actually go there to work and gain real-world hands-on experiences. It’s just a great opportunity,” Campbell said.
The RAMP program started last year so this is the second group of high schoolers to go through it.
“Last year we had a group of first-year kids, who are now in the second year, and then we’ve got these kids. So, it just started last year and it’s a two-year (program),” she stated.
OrthoWorx & IN-MaC
This model of hands-on education was brought to the group via Lisa Deck from Purdue University’s IN-MaC, according to OrthoWorx. IN-MaC provides programs and services to enhance the talents and capabilities of Indiana’s present and future workforce by facilitating connections between educators and industry to catalyze the formation of near-term and long-term skills in a highly accessible manner across Indiana. IN-MaC supports a variety of STEM-type, skilled trades, degree (associates and undergraduate) and certificate programs.
Ryan Christner, OrthoWorx’s executive director of the Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative (OIRI), said, “We actually partnered with Purdue IN-MaC to initially kick off the academy process, to develop this academy, to partner with both workforce and education to build a pathway that follows along the lines of the Industry 4.0 and Engineering pathways that the school is offering, but also serve the need that our workforce needs for future employment.”
He said the first year of the program was predominantly spent in the classroom where industry partners went into the classes and spoke and exposed students to careers and opportunity in orthopedics.
Instrumental Machine & Development, Medartis, Precision Medical Technologies and Zimmer Biomet are the initial four industry partners, Christner said, “but we’re definitely looking to expand that to get more industry partners involved.”
He said the signing day was just an opportunity to highlight the students and acknowledge their commitment to the program, but also give parents an opportunity to be proud of what their students are signing up for. It also highlights an important step for the students in a potential career with orthopedics and advanced manufacturing.
Don Wood Foundation
Late last year, the Don Wood Foundation gave a $778,760 grant to WACC’s welding and advanced manufacturing programs for new equipment and facility upgrades. A representative of the foundation was on hand Wednesday to support the students and the programs on signing day.
Lizette Downey, director of strategic communications for the Don Wood Foundation, said, “The Don Wood Foundation is primarily focused on promoting students in industry and developing advanced manufacturing and skilled trades. We see a deficit in those areas, and part of what our founder, Don Wood, was trying to do was help build future workforce and encourage life-long learning.”
Wood had a very successful business in 80/20, an aluminum frames supplier in Columbia City.
“That is one reason why we are advocates for the advanced manufacturing side. So, we are here representing a campaign called Ignite Advanced Manufacturing, which is trying to, basically, give advanced manufacturing a makeover because we think they have an image issue and people have probably a dated or misperception about what it really is and the fact that it’s very innovative. It’s high-skilled, high-demand, high-wage jobs and there’s a lot of them that are going unfilled or about to go unfilled.”
She mentioned the grant the foundation provided in 2024, saying, “So, we’re here just as advocates and supporting and want to encourage the kids in their future endeavors and want to say it’s a big deal. A lot of kids don’t get that chance to be recognized, so we just want to come alongside and celebrate them as well.”
Harding said after the two-year RAMP program, the students are “very ready to be hired. They’re hireable people at the time.”
He said it’s a great partnership.
“It’s the idea of who’s your customer, right? For the schools, the community is the customer. We need to be producing young adults who are ready to enter the workforce to maintain our viability as a community to bring in manufacturing, right? Continue to have jobs and all that stuff. It’s just a synergy between the community and the school and ensuring we’re putting employable persons in front of the employers in the area,” Harding stated.
Cosmetology & Automotive
After all the RAMP students signed, the students who will be juniors next year and taking part in the cosmetology program signed their intent, followed by those taking the automotive program.
Cosmetology teacher Tina Streby said signing day is “a great opportunity to start this pathway because it takes 1,500 hours by the end of their senior year. One thousand and ten credits later, they’re able to possibly take their state test to get licensed with the state of Indiana. So, for me, it’s just that beginning. It’s like making it amazing. It’s something great.”
The two-year cosmetology program is not just Warsaw juniors and seniors, but also Tippecanoe Valley students and one from Lakeland Christian this year wanted in the program. Streby said they had between 40 to 50 applicants, but she could only take 20.
“We go through grades, we go through attendance, disciplinary things and we do an interview process to see who gets accepted into the program,” she said.
The industry needs good people in it, Streby said, so she’s looking for students who have a passion to do cosmetology and want to go into that career field after school is completed.
The automotive students will be working with Boggs Automotive and teacher Andy Tuinstra.
WACC Director and Principal Ben Barkey said anytime they have a competitive program - like RAMP, cosmetology and automotive - where students have to interview to get into it with industry partners, “We like to do a celebratory signing day. It’s great for the parents to come in and see because we are academics. It’s great for our industry partners because they are giving up a lot of resources, time and dedicating their talents to help the next wave of employees. So it’s just great for everybody involved, and it’s a nice special twist on what we’re doing here at the Career Center.”
Two Students
Two of the students on the top of the list of every business partner’s list for internships for next school year - who landed at Zimmer Biomet - were juniors Mackenzie Campbell and Addison Eastwood.
“Since we’ll be seniors next year, we get to do Work-Based Learning. So we got to interview with some of the companies, and if they liked us, they asked us to join their company. If it worked out, then you got the place you wanted to go to,” Campbell explained.
Eastwood said she chose Zimmer Biomet because she’s always liked the company and her father works there.
While Campbell said she’s still trying to figure out her future career, she thinks interning at Zimmer Biomet will be a good experience to see if she enjoys it first before going to college and “100% choosing it.”
Eastwood hopes to go into mechanical engineering with a biomedical track. “So orthopedics is perfect for me,” she stated, adding that with her father being at Zimmer Biomet, she got to see what he does and that pulled her into the orthopedic world.
Having Zimmer Biomet interested in her as an intern, Eastwood said, “I’m pretty proud of that, personally.” Campbell agreed.