MASON, Ohio — In a room full of hammers, nails and machinery, a group of about 20 students is learning what it takes to build structures.
“Going up on the roof, laying down some shingles, that was the most exciting part," said Mason High School senior Edoardo Dimiziani.
Dimiziani is a member of the inaugural Skilled Trades Workshop class, located inside the MADE HUB for Manufacturing on Reading Road in Mason.
The team of students from Mason and Kings High School has been training with industry professionals since January. The teens have focused on skills including construction, electrical services and plumbing.
Their big task has been building a pair of sheds, which will be raffled off when the students graduate on April 22.
WATCH: Local students show off their new skills
Property owner Bob Leslie said this program is meant to help kids learn about opportunities in the workforce and provide a place away from digital learning.
“Twenty kids standing around, and they’re so engaged into something," Leslie said. "They’re not looking at their iPhones. It’s great, and they really love what they’re doing."
Leslie, among the other leaders in the program, has been impressed by the student's hard work and dedication.
“These two sheds are incredible," Leslie said.
Mason junior Alexander Giesman said tasks like working up on a roof and other skills learned in the class have helped bring him out of his comfort zone.
"Just the push I need, the leverage I need, to dive in deeper," Giesman said.
And for Dimiziani, he told us his goal is to be an airline pilot, and is making sure to take the skills he learned in this course to help him follow his dreams.
"So from one second I could be welding some copper pipes to going up on a roof to doing some electrical, it's teaching me how to adapt and how to still learn and try new habits," Dimiziani said.
A spokesperson for the Mason Deerfield Chamber told us the money made from raffling the sheds built by students will go towards funding future classes in the program.
