Shawsheen Students Pitch in at SRS Medical

What’s the old saying? There’s only one chance to make a first impression? If that is, indeed, the case, SRS Medical in Billerica is certainly putting its faith into a pair of students from Shawsheen Valley Technical High School.

The company, which produces medical devises, has recently opened its doors to Shawsheen’s well-respected cooperative education program, which sees seniors at the school work every-other-week at area businesses.

Shawsheen seniors and Design and Visual Communications students Coltin Urro and Emily Welton, both of Billerica, are employed by SRS and are putting the skills they’ve learned at Shawsheen to good use.

“[SRS] has this great space in a building with all of these white walls,” said Michael Azevedo, a DVC instructor at Shawsheen. The company figured, ‘Let’s have some students come here and create panels of artwork that are based on the eight or nine core values of the company.”

SRS Medical owner Lee Brody came up with a list of values and presented it to the faculty at Shawsheen. Some values of the company included words like passion, winning attitude, accountability, integrity and teamwork.

“We had a few students compete for the chance to do this,” said Azevedo. “The students translated those core values into illustrations.”

But before the students did the actual work, they went through a valuable process.

“We went [to SRS], the students all dressed up and they pitched their ideas like a real ad campaign,” Azevedo said.

Brody and other employees from SRS viewed the work and chose Urro and Welton’s ideas.

“They liked the style that they had,” Azevedo said.

Azevedo said the work of the students reflected what is taught in the classroom at the school.

“We really try to get them to think outside the box,” he said. “We’re one of the only schools in the state that really embraces fine arts. Here’s a great example of two students doing fine arts and making good money.”

“When I went in to Shawsheen, I didn’t have any real technical experience except for just drawing,” said Urro. “I’ve gotten a lot out of the shop as far as learning a bunch of different mediums and programs. The software is always changing.”

Urro and Welton are now at SRS every-other-week putting their creative ideas into motion as a team.

“We include them in our weekly staff meetings,” said Rosanne Riddick, the Director of Finance and Administration at SRS. “We try to give them a flavor for some of the things that drive the business. A lot of times the meetings are about sales and product development, not necessarily relevant to the project, but they are employees of the company now.”

Azevedo has been impressed with how the students have been accepted by the company.

“They have their own little studio space there,” Azevedo said. “They’re painting and working on these pretty sizeable illustrations. Once the students complete them, they’re going to put them up all throughout the company.”

In short, when a perspective client walks through the doors at SRS, it will be the work of Shawsheen students that they’ll see first.

“It’s an awesome, awesome thing for us to have a private company put student artwork in a public space,” said Azevedo.

“They are very mature,” said Riddick of the students. “Their presentation skills and their professionalism were very impressive. They’re working very hard.”

Azevedo said one good experience could lead to others down the road.

“[Brody] really understood what we do here at Shawsheen and what our students can offer,” said Azevedo. “He said when the students are done, he’s going to have some of the other businesses around him look at this stuff. We’re hoping other businesses will be interested too.”

Both Welton, who originally chose Shawsheen Tech to study culinary before one week in Tech Illustration prompted her to switch gears, and Coltin said they’ve applied to Mass. Art for college and hope to make a career out of the field.

Thanks to the experience at SRS Medical and through Shawsheen’s cooperative education program, they’ve got a nice head start.