TC3’s MADE Expo inspires students to explore careers in manufacturing

Made in Tompkins is our new recurring feature dedicated to showcasing the diverse range of manufacturing and development businesses that call Tompkins County home. The first week of each month, the series will spotlight some of the many companies producing goods and services right here in our community.

At the How It’s MADE Manufacturing and Development Expo, the energy of hundreds of students exploring hands-on demonstrations creates a scene that’s far from a typical job fair. Now in its sixth year, the event — hosted by Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) — draws manufacturers from across sectors to engage high schoolers and college students in the real work of modern industry, from soldering circuits to programming equipment. 

At the MADE Expo, coming up Oct. 23, employers are required to provide a hands-on activity or demonstration. 

“The intent is to get folks excited about manufacturing,” said Carrie Whitmore, TC3 director of continuing education and workforce development. “Manufacturing from 1985 is much different than manufacturing in 2025. Without the displays, we’re not going to be able to get people to understand that.”

In the past, she said, the lineup of activities has included the following: The Raymond Corporation brought a virtual welder; Menlo Micro brought its Ideal Switch and demonstrated how it reduces the use of electricity; and the local carpenters’ union put the students to work hammering nails into a floor, “and they loved it,” Whitmore said.

Though some college students come to the expo, the primary audience is high schoolers. In 2019, the first MADE Expo had nine employers and 80 students; the event now attracts 300 students and about 15 to 20 employers ready to make personal connections with potential future employees.

One of those employers is Precision Filters, which has partnered with TC3 for the event since its inception.

“They really care about the education that their employees get and are really supportive of their employees who are interested in going back to school and learning more,” Whitmore said. 

Interest in manufacturing jobs has increased with the announcement that memory and storage solutions giant Micron would be opening facilities in Syracuse, with plans to hire up to 9,000 employees over the next 10 to 20 years, bringing with it a large number of auxiliary jobs in Central New York.

“Educational institutions in the area are working and collaborating to make sure we’re able to scale up the workforce for the jobs that are coming,” Whitmore said.

Part of those efforts include getting young people excited about careers in manufacturing — and energetic, engaging professors can go a long way toward that goal.

Alessa Chernyakov, professor of electrical engineering at TC3, is one of many TC3 professors who works with her students to make her program fun and innovative. “She does an amazing job,” Whitmore said.

For those who are not interested in attending classes on a traditional schedule, TC3 offers an entry-level Technician 1 class, which teaches soldering, among other skills.

Testing systems that put people on the moon 

“I can’t think of another forum where we can reach so many people right on the cusp of making a decision about what they’re going to do right after high school,” Kevin Cornacchio, president of Precision Filters, said of the MADE Expo. 

Precision Filters, Inc., located in Ithaca, was founded in 1975. The company has about 35 employees and designs, manufactures and distributes precision instruments for the most demanding measurement applications, providing high-performance signal conditioning and digitizing products with built-in verification and calibration features.

But to give a more visceral picture of what his company does, Cornacchio likes to tell people they do testing on the space launch system for the new rocket that is going to bring people to the moon. 

Later that day, Cornacchio would be visiting the NASA Status Market Test Center in Mississippi. After 30 years in manufacturing, he still gets excited for these types of opportunities.

Precision Filters has a longstanding, mutually beneficial relationship with TC3.

“If you look at our current leaders at our company, many were TC3 graduates,” Cornacchio said. “Our VP of engineering, our manufacturing manager and our tech support manager, they all went through the TC3 program.”

Cornacchio sees the MADE Expo was a way to expose young people to career paths they might not have otherwise explored.

“Often people have these stereotyped views of manufacturing — that it’s dangerous or boring — but when you look at working on the floor, our employees are using problem-solving and writing programs,” he said. 

Assembly workers at Precision Filters use drawings and instructions, working to put products together by hand or with the assistance of a machine. As Cornacchio put it, “People who like putting things together, like ship-in-a-bottle type things, tend to be assemblers.”

Those who like to work with computers and enjoy escape rooms or working on puzzles tend to gravitate toward testing positions.

“We have a collaborative approach where we’ll be working on fixing a problem, and suddenly there’s a eureka moment,” Cornacchio said. “And we have those often.”

“I love it,” said Dana Elston of her experience interning at Precision Filters. “I feel like it’s one of the best learning environments I could have been thrown into, coming out of school.”

The classroom is a much different place to learn than in the actual manufacturing facility.

“I realized how much I love what I’m going to school for,” Elston said. “Everybody [at Precision Filters] is so open to questions and always making time for me and finding things for me to do.”

Elston decided she wanted to pursue her chosen field while taking an engineering class with now-retired Cortland High School teacher Charles Petit. She just wasn’t sure which kind of engineering she would like to pursue as a career. 

She ran her dilemma by her advisor at TC3, Sophia Georgiakaki, who suggested she try electrical engineering. She took classes with Chernyakov and “fell in love” with the work. “I’m so glad for it,” Elston said.

The How It’s Made Expo will take place Oct. 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at TC3 in Dryden. To register your school group, grades 9 to 12, visit tompkinscortland.edu/made. 

Made in Tompkins is sponsored by the Tompkins Chamber of Commerce and Tompkins Cortland Community College.