This summer, four regional community colleges across the U.S. hosted National Network for Pulp & Paper Technology's (NPT2) Student/Faculty Summer Institutes. The recently completed institutes provided a forum for high school students, high school advisors, and college educators to gather. While there, they explored the products, processes, and career opportunities in the pulp and paper industry.
This year's annual institutes, held in Maine, Washington, Alabama, and Minnesota, provided participants with hands-on exposure to pulp and paper processes and included visits to local pulp and paper production facilities. Many students visited the University of Maine's campus to observe ongoing research in the area of cellulosic biofuels.
"I realized it involved more technological skill than I initially believed," said one student participant at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Mich. "It made me want to consider working in the paper industry."
Each institute is designed to enable participants to achieve several goals:
The Network was created to provide the pulp and paper sector of the U.S. forest products industry with a Technologically Advanced Workforce (TAW). NPT2 achieves this goal by offering exciting and effective education and training. The Network is an alliance of community colleges, universities, industry partners, and the National Science Foundation. NPT2 is a part of the TAW platform supported by TAPPI, the leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging, and converting industries and the American Forest and Paper Association's special project group, Agenda 2020.
More information is available from T. J. Murphy, executive director, NPT2, tjmurphy@ascc.edu, +1 (334) 637-3193.
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/