Southridge, OFS celebrate first Crafted class as students build school furniture

Desks and chairs across Southridge High School now carry the names of the first Crafted students, a visible reminder that the program has already changed the building where those students learned.

Principal Greg Gogel pointed to that furniture as one of the most memorable parts of the milestone, because the work is not locked away in a display case or buried on a résumé. It is in classrooms and hallways, where current Southridge students sit down every day and see what a local manufacturing partnership can produce.

Crafted is Southridge’s hands-on pathway with OFS, the Huntingburg contract furniture maker headquartered at 1204 East Sixth Street. The program places students in woodworking, advanced manufacturing and design, and gives them work in measurement, programming, cutting and assembly. OFS says the goal is to show that craftsmanship still matters and that opportunity exists close to home.

One student, junior Owen Blessinger, spent the summer working for OFS and returned to the Crafted classroom with a new sense of purpose. The experience underscores what makes the program different from a typical elective: students are not only learning tools and processes, they are seeing a direct line from classroom skills to a paycheck and a future job in Dubois County.

That matters in a county where manufacturing remains a core part of the economy. OFS has described Crafted as a way to connect young people with real workplace expectations, and Southridge has built the pathway into a broader college-and-career framework. The school says it offers more than 50 dual credit courses, is in the final stages of being designated an Early College High School, and has partnerships with Ivy Tech, the University of Southern Indiana, Indiana University and Vincennes University.

The school’s pathway model is designed to offer dual credit opportunities and certifications, giving students multiple ways to move from high school into either college or the workforce. That structure makes Crafted more than a career-awareness class. It is part of a system that can help students leave Southridge with experience, credentials and local industry connections already in place.

The program has also grown in practical ways. OFS has added new equipment to the curriculum and assigned an employee to guide students through its operation. The class has included paid internships and projects such as bookshelves, adding another layer of real-world experience to the work.

For Dubois County, the first Crafted class offers a concrete answer to a bigger question: whether local schools and employers can build a pipeline strong enough to feed the county’s manufacturing jobs. With OFS continuing to invest in Huntingburg and 74 seniors countywide recently recognized for choosing employment or military service after graduation, the pathway is looking less like an experiment and more like a model with room to grow.