Journey began in the spring of 2016, when I stepped toward something I could not yet fully name
Brian Heffron
This coming fall, Oswego County P-TECH will welcome its 11th cohort, marking a milestone that speaks to far more than longevity.
For 10 years, the program has opened doors for students to earn a high school diploma while simultaneously pursuing a free college degree in advanced manufacturing through Onondaga Community College.
That achievement belongs not only to the students and educators who have carried the work forward, but also to the manufacturing employers throughout our region who chose, from the beginning, to build something different alongside them.
For me, this milestone is deeply personal.
I have given 11 years of my career to Oswego County P-TECH, first as a teacher, then as principal and now as a liaison helping strengthen the industry partnerships that have always been central to the model.
That journey began in the spring of 2016, when I stepped toward something I could not yet fully name. I walked into an interview expecting educators and instead found myself across the table from industry leaders representing companies like Novelis, Huhtamaki, EJ and Constellation. At that moment, I understood this was not business as usual. This was education reimagined, shaped by the real world and built with a different purpose. Before the interview was over, I knew I wanted in.
What has always made P-TECH powerful is not simply its design, but who it was built to serve. The diversity of our student population is not secondary to the mission. It is the mission. Young women stepping into spaces once closed to them. Students with disabilities proving that potential cannot be measured by limitation. First-generation college students daring to go where no one in their family has gone before. Students facing economic hardship choosing not to let circumstance define their future. P-TECH was built for these students.
Today, P-TECH graduates are becoming the next generation of technicians, engineers, welders and human resource professionals helping drive the growth of manufacturing across our region. They are entering the workforce at a moment of profound transformation, as industry adapts to new technologies and our communities prepare for unprecedented opportunity. P-TECH continues to evolve alongside that change, giving students authentic experiences that build confidence, skills and direction.
As I visit manufacturing facilities throughout our region, I am often greeted by graduates whose faces take me back in an instant. I see not only the professionals they have become, but the high school students they once were, full of curiosity and ambition. Then comes the handshake, firm and confident and the look in their eye that says everything. I found my path. I am proud of what I have become. In those moments, the promise of P-TECH feels not abstract, but fully alive.
This milestone belongs to those students, past, present and future. It also belongs to the local employers whose teams have given countless hours beyond their job descriptions to mentor young people because they believe in them, in their communities and in what this program makes possible. From the beginning, they were never just partners. They were believers in the mission.
Advanced manufacturing will continue to be the bedrock of economic development in our region, and P-TECH will be there to ensure that all students in Oswego County are provided a pathway that leads to purpose, possibility and the chance to build meaningful careers in the communities that helped shape them.
Brian Heffron is the administrator of Workforce Development & Community Relations at Center for Instruction, Technology & Innovation. He can be reached at bheffron@citiboces.org.
