Talent Development Lab coming to Pascagoula-Gautier School District

Ingalls Shipbuilding and the Pascagoula-Gautier School District have teamed up to make sure technical students at Pascagoula High have the tools they need to succeed.

It’s all about the tools students need to succeed for the future. The Pascagoula-Gautier School District and Ingalls Shipbuilding cut the ribbon on Pascagoula High School’s new talent development lab for welding and technical students.

Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias says the entire lab building process began well over a year ago. “Well, we basically assessed the condition of the lab about a year and a half ago and we said this really isn’t the state of the art, it really isn’t the equipment or the methods, so we offered to help. Let us bring it up to, I would say, best of class standards.”

The lab is situated in the school’s existing welding lab which Ingalls fitted with up to date ventilation and safety equipment to go along with twenty brand new welding machines. The machinery shop also received refurbished equipment as part of the project.

For senior welding student Aderlin Soler, the new lab is a huge change from the one he started out in. “It was safe, but now you could, lights help a lot, because it wasn’t that bright and now it is better. Thank God and Ingalls.”

Teachers and Ingalls professionals will use the lab to teach students the new innovations in welding and help prepare them for jobs in a competitive industry. Pascagoula-Gautier School District Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich said, “It helps the demand for welders in one of the most industrialized areas in the United States of America.”

Ingalls says this partnership with the school district benefits the community in the long run. “I think this is a rebirth, a most modern facility in the country. Great curriculum, great trainers, instructors, life skills. This is setting a new bar on how corporations interface with communities,” said Cuccias.