State Rep. Tim Twardzik, R-Schuylkill, this week joined Schuylkill County students for the What’s So Cool about Manufacturing Berks Schuylkill contest awards.

The event was hosted by the Manufacturers Resource Center. The contest’s objective was to change students’ perceptions about manufacturing careers.

The contest drew entries from teams across Pennsylvania. The teams of students and teacher coaches received camera equipment, software, and professional guidance as they learned to script, record, and edit the video stories.

The following schools won awards: Outstanding Editing: D.H.H. Lengel Middle School/Hexel Corporation; tie, Outstanding Team Spirit: Tri Valley Jr./Sr. High School/Keystone Potato Products, LLC; Viewers Choice: Blue Mountain Middle School/Clearly Clean; Outstanding Career Pathway: Minersville Jr./Sr. High School/Prysmian Group-Schuylkill Haven; Outstanding CTE Story: North Schuylkill Jr./Sr. High School/Ashland Technologies Inc.

Tamaqua, Mahanoy City, Schuylkill Haven, and Shenandoah Valley schools produced excellent videos that are available for online viewing at WhatSoCool.org.

Several Schuylkill County businesses opened their doors to the student teams: Clearly Clean; Keystone Potato Products LLC; Blaschak Anthracite Corporation; Ashland Technologies Inc.; Prysmian Group; Hexel Corporation; Cardinal Systems Inc.; FabCon Precast, Highwood and EMD Electronics.