In an effort to promote engineering and manufacturing, Goodwin University has partnered with middle schools and high schools across Connecticut to provide new educational and technological opportunities. The Early College Advanced Manufacturing Program, or ECAMP, helps students interested in engineering or manufacturing earn college credits. Schools that have received this opportunity include The Connecticut River Academy in East Hartford, Hartford Public High School, Pathways Academy of Technology & Design, and The Morgan School.
Goodwin University began its ECAMP in 2019 to promote manufacturing and help stimulate Connecticut’s economy.

The program provides middle and high school students with access to opportunities, equipment, and education they would not be provided within the typical classroom setting. The middle school classes offered by ECAMP are more of an introductory course to the advanced learning offered in the high school program. As of now, Morgan is the only school in the Clinton Public School System to offer the program.
This program will work to reduce workforce gaps, increasing the skills of future employees in order to meet an employer’s expectations. Goodwin University offers enough credits for students to go into college with extra credits or directly into the workforce.
Students can take two paths, according to Engineering teacher Lawrence Chapman. The engineering path requires students to pursue higher education since Morgan’s version of ECAMP only offers up to nine college credits. Students have the option to use these credits as college engineering credits or college elective credits. Students can pursue a manufacturing path where they become certified in CNC manufacturing through Haas Automation. In addition to learning to use the CNC machine and taking the engineering class, students are required to take a final test issued by Haas on what they have learned in the class. If a student passes, they receive a certificate from Haas which certifies them proficient in CNC manufacturing. This allows students who are not interested in attending college to enter the workforce right after high school.
Two local business owners, Oliver Bausch of Bausch Advanced Technology Group and Phil Williams of Kenyon International encouraged the beginning of ECAMP at Morgan. Bausch, who owns a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, and Williams, who owns a company that makes appliances for vehicles, had trouble finding employees for their businesses. Both companies require employees who are able to work with their hands, have manufacturing experience, and are skilled at math; which the ECAMP pipeline will provide.
Earning engineering credits has become easier at Morgan thanks to a grant offered to the engineering department.

This grant has provided Mr. Chapman’s room with a CNC machine, which allows students to use computers to make precision cuts and manufacture the metal pieces required for machines like the ones used at Bausch Advanced Technologies and Kenyon International. This is a significant upgrade from

the personal CNC machine that was placed into the engineering room when the school was built. A personal CNC machine requires extreme precision since the user needs to measure and cut the piece by hand. With the new CNC machine, the user programs the computer inside to make the required cuts, making the process less labor-intensive and more efficient.
Assistant superintendent, Marco Famiglietti, has supported the addition of ECAMP to Morgan’s engineering department. He claims that even though the CNC machine requires less skill than the personal CNC machine, it allows more students to enter the workforce, which is the main goal of ECAMP.
ECAMP is set to be fully implemented at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.