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Students from Lower Macungie won top honors for their video about Crayola. PHOTO/KIM PLYLER
Statewide winner named for ‘What’s So Cool About Manufacturing’
Listen to this articleStudents from Lower Macungie Middle School were the winners of this year’s statewide What’s So Cool About Manufacturing Contest for their video featuring Easton‘s Crayola.
At the seventh annual “Best of PA” Statewide Awards Event at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg 23 student teams competed for first, second and third place awards as well as the Statewide Viewers Choice winner.
A four-judge panel viewed the 23 entries, representing 12 regional contests across Pennsylvania, to select the statewide award recipients.
Ephrata Middle School featuring High Steel Service Center too second place in the competition
Third place was a tie between Nazareth Area Middle School featuring Freshpet, Inc. and Somerset Area Junior High School featuring Four Guys Fire Trucks.
Central Columbia Middle School featuring Strong Industries from the Central Susquehanna contest, was recognized for garnering the largest number of regional vote totals across the state, during three days of online voting where all Pennsylvania teams competed to win their regional Viewers Choice Award.
“The continued success of the What’s So Cool program validates its effort to generate excitement toward careers in the manufacturing sector and to promote STEM education and technical training among students and parents.” said Karen Buck, director of Workforce Initiatives at Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC). “We are so excited and proud to celebrate the Best of PA 2025 student teams and highlight their videos!”
The 2025 program in Pennsylvania included 167 middle school teams from 12 regional contests.
The “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing” Student Video Contest, which originated in the Lehigh Valley and is the brainchild of MRC, has garnered over 6,000,000 combined votes by the public during regional online voting dates since its inception in 2013, and more than 60% of Pennsylvania school districts have participated in the program.
