Foundational Images
Although I’ve spent the last 20 years in Ohio, I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. When I tell people in Ohio where I’m from (once we get beyond the football rivalries) generally they will grudgingly admit to enjoying the entry to Pittsburgh through the Fort Pitt Tunnel. You go into a hillside and come out to an amazing reveal of the downtown skyline and the convergence of 3 rivers. It is a vision I enjoy, but it’s not the one from my childhood. I lived north of the city, so I could see the skyline emerge more gradually as I came down from the opposite direction on Route 28. One of the first buildings I remember seeing was the tallest building in Pittsburgh, the US Steel Building. That’s the name I remember from growing up.
I associated the building with Pittsburgh steel and between it and the ALCOA sign on Mt. Washington, I grew up thinking about steel and coal.
A few years after I moved to Ohio, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center established their headquarters on 5 floors of the building and put up enormous UPMC letters at the top. It was a disruptive change for me to see for the first time.
I reflected on this when welcoming the 11th Ohio Manufacturing Camp Summit at Ohio University’s Dublin campus this week. The manufacturing camps in Ohio founded by Senator Sherrod Brown have grown from one to more than 30 covering over 18 counties. They are a great way for local manufacturers and plants, community partners and schools, to engage students and show them the jobs available in their community in manufacturing.
There are still steel offices in the building now marked as UPMC, but the situation is different than the 1970s. Much like the building itself, there is an deeper interaction with healthcare and manufacturing. At Ohio University over 30% of the degrees granted are from health-related majors. One in 9 jobs in the United States are in the healthcare sector. Health is big, but it isn’t the only thing. It’s a field that exists with contributions from multiple other areas.
Durable medical equipment including wheelchairs and electronic communication systems requires careful construction and engineering. Hospitals, urgent-care centers, and rehabilitation facilities require specialized structures with complex diagnostic & therapeutic machines. The building, materials, and equipment are key infrastructure for a healthy population.
I see connections all the time with my fellow deans across colleges. Highlighting the jobs and the intersections is important. If a building has 4 letters on it, people may not know about the other tenants and possibilities inside. We need camps and experiences to show students about the options in their communities so that they can have images of the kinds of jobs that are available and the industries that support the people they live and interact with every day.
Image: EEJCC, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://lnkd.in/g-BS-qXd>, via Wikimedia Commons
