Blue Hills Regional Technical School Thanks Braintree- based Haemonetics for Their Assistance with Governor's Vocational Opportunity Challenge Grant

By Judy Bass

This spring, Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton received a grant for $25,000 to purchase equipment in the second year of the Patrick Administration’s Vocational Opportunity Challenge (VOC) competitive grant program.

“We needed to partner with either a college of a business so we could get feedback about what to purchase that students needed experience with in order to prepare them for a career in a particular industry,” said Blue Hills Director of Vocational Programs Francis Howley. “We partnered with Haemonetics in Braintree, [a global leader that specializes in blood management for places like hospitals and blood collection centers], who were very gracious to host us so we could get feedback. We hope to partner with Haemonetics so our students will have co-op opportunities and internships there.”

On Sept. 5, Howley presented Paul McGovern, Principal Mechanical Engineer, Research & Development, at Haemonetics with a copy of the certificate the school received commemorating this grant, which Howley said will be used to purchase a state-of-the-art milling machine for the Engineering program.

McGovern said, “A solid technical background is the foundation of a competent engineer. This grant will be used provide the tools required to obtain those skills. Having an understanding of how things are actually made is critical to the success of any designer. Blue Hills has a great program which combines the technical and scholastic training to prepare the student for an engineering or engineering technology degree.”

“When the grant opportunity came out,” said Howley, “we understood that STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] initiatives are highly stressed, so along with [Blue Hills Lead Engineering Instructor] Dr. Mike Meyers, we contacted companies in the area that had that particular background. The Research and Development Dept. [at Haemonetics], particularly Paul McGovern, was instrumental in giving us the feedback we needed to write an effective grant that would be accepted, and it was.”