What does it take to run a successful manufacturing operation? Companies that embrace innovation, shift operational models to keep pace with change and invest in ongoing employee development are likely to stay ahead of the pack.
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As a young boy growing up in Plymouth, England, Chris Soothill imagined joining the army or navy someday. Those dreams were dashed after he was diagnosed with a visual impairment. But life had other plans.
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The path to success doesn’t always follow a straight line. Sometimes you have to take a detour or stop at a crossroads. At least that’s been Kati Maas’ experience.
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Rhonda Carson expected to spend the bulk of her career at a local bank. The Forsyth Tech alumna, who earned an AAS degree with high honors in Information Systems in 1998, was convinced that the bank – where she had already begun working the year before – offered a range of opportunities she could build her career on.
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Stepping Up To The Future

The crowd can barely suppress their excitement as Forsyth Tech’s class of 2015 enters Winston-Salem’s LJVM Coliseum on May 7, 2015. Five hundred graduates in royal blue gowns and mortarboards make their way, single file, to reserved seating on the Coliseum floor. They’re bursting with anticipation, but also with pride, joy, satisfaction and even a touch of trepidation. But like the spectators, they’re mostly excited. Noise evaporates into stillness among the grads, family and friends, faculty, staff, administrators and VIPs in the room when commencement starts. Later, guest speaker Governor Pat McCrory comments on the buoyant mood lifting everyone’s spirits: “I have never seen so many smiles at one time. Your parents, your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, and your neighbors are so proud of you,” he tells the graduates, beaming himself. Then he repeats what his father told him when the future governor graduated from Jamestown’s Ragsdale High School in 1974: “Now, I want you to fulfill your potential.”
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All in the Family

When Tim Lasley was in high school, he worked part time at Wilson’s Garage in Pfafftown and became a volunteer firefighter at Pfafftown’s Vienna Fire Department. Little did he know that both workplaces would lead him to Forsyth Tech and that all three places would occupy a central role in his life.
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A New Crop

A hay dummy wrapped in white plastic – proxy for a farm worker – gets shredded in an instant by a spinning power takeoff shaft transferring power from a tractor to another piece of equipment. A few minutes later, the ground rumbles when a tractor is tipped over, crushing a hay dummy sitting behind the steering wheel.
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