IMC is excited to announce the award recipients for the “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” (WSCM) Central Susquehanna student video contest awards. The annual awards ceremony was held April 23rd at The Venue at Liberty Valley in Danville, PA.
The WSCM contest partners students from middle schools in Central PA with regional manufacturers. Each student team scripted, shot, edited and promoted a short video that documents their experience highlighting what is “cool” about manufacturing and manufacturing careers. Two videos in the region will be moving on to represent Central Susquehanna at the annual statewide competition being held in Harrisburg on May 14th at the Whitaker Center.
The video with the most votes, during three days of online voting in March, received the “Viewers’ Choice Award.” A panel of judges reviewed the videos for awards in three other categories including Outstanding Overall Program, Outstanding Team Spirit and Outstanding Brand Placement.
“We had a really great contest this year with students and their manufacturing partners working together to highlight what’s so cool about manufacturing in Central PA. In our fifth year of this contest, we had a record number of votes for the Viewers’ Choice award of over 104,000 votes,” said Lauri Moon, Manager of Outreach & Special Projects with IMC and Co-manager of the Central Susquehanna contest. “The students, teachers and manufacturers put in so much hard work, and it definitely showed in their final videos.”
This year’s awards and their winners are:
- Outstanding Overall Program: Mount Carmel Area Middle School & Dyco, Inc.
- Viewers’ Choice Award: Central Columbia Middle School & Strong Industries
- Outstanding Team Spirit: Huntingdon Area Middle School & Gardners Candies, Inc.
- Outstanding Brand Placement: Bloomsburg Area Middle School & GAF
Congratulations to the Mount Carmel Area Middle School/Dyco, Inc. and Huntingdon Area Middle School & Gardners Candies, Inc. teams who were nominated to move on to the statewide competition in Harrisburg next month. Central Columbia Middle School/Strong Industries will also be attending by special invitation.
Figure 1. Outstanding Overall Program & Outstanding Brand Placement: Mount Carmel Area Middle School
Figure 2.Outstanding Team Spirit: Huntingdon Area Middle School
Figure 3. Viewers’ Choice Award: Central Columbia Middle School & Strong Industries
Partnering on this regional contest is the Innovative Manufacturers’ Center, Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, Advance Central PA and The Foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce. Funding for the 2025 Central Susquehanna program was made possible by these organizations and EITC, PA Department of Labor & Industry Business & Education and ARC/Degenstein Foundation grants. Awards were generously created and donated by SUN Area Technical Institute.
To check out this year’s Central Susquehanna What’s So Cool About Manufacturing? videos, visit https://www.whatssocool.org/contests/central-susquehanna/.
Visit WhatsSoCool.org for more information and follow on Facebook.com/WSCMCenSusq.
