Trade Camp Presents Williamson to High School Students

About 40 rising high school students from across the region and Harlem Charter School, learned something about the trades while participating in Williamson’s first Trade Camp in July.

With about 20 participating each week in two week-long camps, the young men spent the first three days hearing an in-depth introduction of each of Williamson’s six trade programs. The last two days, as a group, they constructed a complex outdoor gathering space that combined elements of all six trades and gave them the opportunity to use the skills they had just learned under the leadership of the trade instructors.

The project included an overhead pergola, pavers, brick columns, low-voltage landscape lighting powered by a solar panel, and wind chimes fabricated in the Machine Shop.

Throughout the week they were exposed to the rigors and structure of Williamson as well as the benefits of graduating from the school. The students lived on campus and participated in team building and fun activities emphasizing the brotherhood nature of the college’s student body.

Each camp concluded with two presentations – “A Future in the Trades,” providing an interactive overview of career opportunities in the construction trades, and “Williamson College of the Trades,” an admissions briefing outlining the excellent opportunity available to each of the students.

The two camps took place July 11-15 and July 18-22.

Williamson offers trade programs in carpentry, electrical, landscape construction and management, machine tool technology, masonry, and power plant technology.