Peachtree Packaging partners with Discovery HIgh School to Prepare Gwinnett Students
Peachtree Packaging & Display is helping Discovery High School launch a Vex Robotics Club. Peachtree donated funds for the school to purchase equipment and register for upcoming competitions. The club already has 20 students enrolled who, according to their teachers, can’t wait to see the robotics equipment in action.
The Discovery MechaTitans are led by Michael Christodoulou, who teaches engineering, technology and computer science at the school. Christodoulou says the club has been meeting weekly since August 2021. Students leverage the VEX system of components to master the theories and practical applications of robotics as they practice, scrimmage, and compete with clubs in competitions like the internationally recognized VEX Robotics Competition.
“Our Robotics Club, the Discovery MechaTitans, has been very excited about getting our program up and running and to be able to start entering tournaments,” said Christodoulou. “Many thanks to Peachtree Packaging for their generous contribution. Our kids are now able to learn many new high-tech skills they could not access in the classroom."
Lauren Croft, hiring and recruiting manager for Peachtree, has been instrumental in the ongoing collaboration with Discovery High School. For example, she previously recruited multiple students to participate in paid internships at Peachtree.
“We have a very positive relationship with Discovery High School and have enjoyed working with their leadership, faculty and students,” said Croft. “We have had some wonderful interns who decided to come on full time after graduation and are seeing some great collaborations between their faculty and our engineers and designers.”
This past summer, Peachtree participated in Gwinnett County’s Summer of Impact program and invited faculty, including Christodoulou, to spend a week at Peachtree to gain ideas to use in their curriculum. During the visit, the teachers from Discovery High School identified how Peachtree could help their students. Every year, the school’s Technology Student Association designs and constructs a corrugated project for a national competition. This year they were tasked with building a nightstand. Due to Peachtree’s expertise in working with corrugated materials, the teachers collaborated with Peachtree’s designers on plans for the nightstand, plus included them as judges of student’s work.
Christodoulou says he is thrilled with the results and hopes Peachtree will continue to be involved at Discovery High School. “It’s been so good for us and our students to have access to Peachtree’s expertise and experts so we can bring real-world learning into the classroom. We see this as a launching point to a long-term collaboration,” he said.