What’s So Cool About Manufacturing 2025
What is the WSCM Competition?
The “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” (WSCM) contest, funded by the Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC), is an educational initiative aimed at teaching middle school students about the manufacturing industry through a creative video project.
Viwinco Windows has been a participant in the WSCM imitative, both as a sponsor and a highlighted manufacturer since 2019 as a member of the Berks-Schuylkill counties chapter. The objective of the contest is to challenge stereotypes surrounding manufacturing careers and to raise awareness of the many rewarding opportunities within the field.
Oley Valley Middle School + Viwinco Windows!
This year was our seventh year as sponsors and as a highlighted manufacturer in the WSCM! Over the years, we have watched the program grow exponentially. For the 2025 season, we were paired with students from Oley Valley Middle School.
In late December, the students visited our facility for a tour led by our R&D Manager, Ben Manderachi and our Reliability Engineer, Jon Balthrop. The visit kicked off at our R&D building, where we demonstrated the strength of our OceanView Impact Resistant windows through our signature impact test—launching a 2×4 at the bottom sash using our pressure cannon. The students had a blast! After the test, they took their field hockey sticks to both the top and bottom sashes, putting the impact glass to the test themselves and confirming it wouldn’t break through. Then, the students were guided through our new glass shop and lines 1, 2, 3, and the shipping department in our main building. Following the tour, the students interviewed key company members including our Chief R&D Officer Skyler Barnes, our Business Development and Marketing Specialist Nick Taylor, our Glass Value Stream Manager Andrew Buczewski, our Site Reliability Manager Mallory Duncan, and our Customer Service Supervisor Maria Vazquez.
The students had a great plan of action and coordinated well between one another, and us, to execute their video concept efficiently during their time at Viwinco.
Creating the Video
The goal of this video is to answer the question “What’s so Cool About Manufacturing?” through a fun, educational video that showcases the featured manufacturer by coming up with a storyline and creative b-roll while working together as a team.
After the tour and filming, the students began to assemble their video for the competition. The video starts with girls in a gym playing field hockey. One of the girls misses the ball entirely, hurling her hockey stick into the air and through a window in the gym. Quick to fix their schools gym, the kids visit Viwinco for a replacement. While there, they interview our team members to ask questions about Viwinco—and to play on the running gag of, ‘Who even puts windows in a gym?’ Turns out, it’s a gym thing!
The Awards Ceremony
On April 1st, we had the pleasure of attending the awards ceremony at the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. The event brought together over 1,000 attendees—including students, teachers, community leaders, sponsors, parents, and manufacturers. The evening kicked off with speeches from the hosts, followed by the presentation of awards to standout student groups from the Berks-Schuylkill area. While our group didn’t take home an award this year, we couldn’t be prouder of their hard work and dedication. It was a rewarding experience getting to work alongside the students and sharing more about what we do!
Looking Forward
Participating in the WSCM competition is a fantastic opportunity to engage with the community, and we take pride in contributing to the education of the next generation in manufacturing. We are thankful to the Oley Valley Middle School students and teacher coach for their great work! Additionally, we thank MRC for facilitating the program and selecting us to participate once again!
To see a full list of award recipients visit the Berks Schuylkill contest page
All student videos can be seen on this page too.
Additional updates can be seen on the WSCM Berks and Schuylkill social media pages below:
