Lynn Tech students helping Habitat for Humanity

LYNN – With co-op positions in short supply, Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute electrical shop students are finding real-world experience in voluntary service, providing the power source for Habitat for Humanity volunteers soon to be building in one Lynn neighborhood.Once a parking lot for General Electric’s most senior employees, the lot of land between 33-35 Cooper St. should be home to two struggling families by this time next spring, thanks to the home building efforts of the national non-profit group.Habitat for Humanity is constructing two houses side-by-side on the lot, but without the help of the LVTI electrical shop, the project would be impossible.Six junior students and instructor Ron Hennessey walked from the Neptune Boulevard campus to Cooper Street Tuesday morning to install temporary electrical service to the job site, where volunteers are expected to begin working soon.The wooden box, constructed with help from students in the carpentry shop, contains an electrical panel and four utility outlets, attached to an electrical pole on the site.The box will allow Habitat for Humanity volunteers to plug in and charge all of their electrical tools and equipment during the construction process.”This is great experience. A lot of these kids won’t be going out on co-op because there is not a lot of work,” said Hennessey. “It is giving back to the community. Hopefully this is the start of something good with Habitat for Humanity and Lynn Tech, too.”Hennessey formed a relationship with Habitat for Humanity this fall when he and students from night school courses he teaches at North Shore Community College and Gould Construction Institute helped complete two projects in Salem.When the organization found out it was going to Lynn, it contacted Hennessey and again asked for his help. While he hasn’t received clearance for students to work on the actual project because of liability issues, Hennessey was able to convince school officials to allow students to set up the temporary box.Although the project only took a few hours, students were grateful to be out of the classroom and out in the field learning their trade in a work environment.”This is a lot better than doing the same stuff on the board every day in the shop – and there is no dirt in the shop either,” said student Sean Vaczy. “It is a lot better for teamwork, too. Not that there isn’t teamwork in the shop, but out here you really have to rely on each other to make it work. You can’t work together like this in the shop.”Students say that finding work in co-op programs is nearly impossible presently during this economic downturn and say most kids have to know someone who owns a business to get any summer work.”I have been doing this since eighth grade, but it is kind of hard if you don’t know anybody that does electrical,” said student Mike Noonan.Vaczy and fellow student Jose Grullan agreed and said they still have to work at Market Basket in Salem instead of taking jobs in their field.Habitat for Humanity is expected to begin construction on a house at 33 Cooper St. this summer and is waiting on litigation for the second home, to be located next door.”This is good, we just did an OCEA class for them at school,” said Hennessey. “This is what we do at Tech, we get these kids ready for the real world.”