The Coghlin Companies have a long history of giving back to the communities in which we live and work.   For over 100 years, our Companies have supported health, education, and social service programs.  One notable example is our support of Worcester Technical High School.

Worcester Technical High School (WTHS) opened in 2006, replacing the old Worcester Vocational High School that dated back to 1909.  Once considered the lowest performing high school in the city, today the school boasts a 96 percent graduation rate.  Math proficiency has soared from 4 percent to 74 percent.  Seventy-seven percent of students go on to college.  Much of the funding for this $90M school was raised through private contributions from the local business community under the leadership of Ted Coghlin with support from the Coghlin family.

Today, Columbia Tech is proud to support the senior co-op program at WTHS.  This has been a remarkable success with benefits accruing to the company as much as it benefits the students involved.  Two students, Natalie and Jason of the Electromechanical Technology / Engineering Technology Program are the charter members of the WTHS co-op program at Columbia Tech.  They work alternate weeks in our Manufacturing Engineering Department.  We are amazed how quickly they have become fully contributing members of the Department.  They perform a broad range of tasks from helping process engineering change orders to writing manufacturing work instructions.  We are impressed by their technical knowledge and how quickly they have learned the tasks they have been asked to perform.  They have even become proficient on our new Enterprise Resource Planning System that was just implemented this summer.  Their skills are a testament to the quality of education at WTHS under the leadership of many people like Michael Meagher, the Head of the Electromechanical Engineering Department.  We look forward to seeing Natalie and Jason move on to college and hope they will return to Columbia Tech as engineers!

– Randy Ziffer
Sr. VP Manufacturing Operations