A few golden shovels, a 3D-printed robotic scoop, and years of persistence marked the beginning of something much bigger than a new building at Davie County High School on Thursday.
Students, educators, elected officials, business and community leaders gathered October 29 to break ground on the school’s new Advanced Manufacturing Lab, a facility designed to give students hands-on experience in high-demand fields while strengthening the pipeline of skilled workers available to Davie County employers.
“In Davie County Schools, we encourage our students and staff to dream big. This is one of those dreams,” Davie County Schools Superintendent Dr. Heath Belcher told the crowd as the ceremony began. “As educators and community partners, we have a responsibility to help put those dreams within reach, with the right tools and the right opportunities that open doors for our students.”
A $1.5 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation, along with additional funding from the State of North Carolina this past summer, is helping bring the project to life. The new facility is projected to open in spring 2028.
The new facility is expected to provide training in areas such as mechatronics, robotics, engineering technology, and machining, while also creating flexible classroom space to support additional career pathways.
But speaker after speaker emphasized that the project is about far more than bricks, equipment, and classroom space.
It is about helping students discover possibilities they may never have known existed.
From “Shop” Class to Advanced Manufacturing
Davie County Board of Education Chairman Dub Potts reflected on just how much career and technical education has changed since he was a student in Davie County Schools in the 1960s.
At that time, he said, boys might take “shop” in preparation for work in furniture manufacturing or agriculture classes to prepare for life on one of the many dairy farms operating in the county. Vocational education for the girls consisted of business skills and home economics, preparing them for futures as stay-at-home moms.
Hands-on laboratory opportunities were limited.
Over the decades, career education expanded to include drafting, nursing, masonry, carpentry, automotive technology, culinary arts, agriculture and many other pathways.
“Today, those opportunities begin as early as middle school and are designed to prepare students for a wide variety of futures — whether they enter the workforce, join the military, attend community college, or continue to a four-year university.”
The new Advanced Manufacturing Lab represents the next step.
“Our students will be able to enter the workforce or continue advanced training at Davidson-Davie Community College,” Potts said, noting that employers will also benefit from graduates entering the workforce with stronger technical skills.
The goal, he said, is to give students the opportunity to build a career while remaining right here in Davie County.
Preparing Students for High-Demand Careers
Scott Hamilton, president and CEO of the Golden LEAF Foundation, said the project closely aligns with the foundation’s mission of increasing economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural communities.
Golden LEAF awarded $1.5 million to Davie County Schools in 2024 to support construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Lab and classroom facility.
“We support projects that help students gain the skills and the credentials that they need to pursue high-demand careers while helping businesses access the skilled workforce they need to grow, and that is exactly what this project is about. Manufacturing continues to evolve, and employers need workers with increasingly specialized technical skills,” Hamilton said.
“At the same time, students need opportunities to explore those careers and gain hands-on experience before entering the workforce. Davie County Schools recognized both the growing interest among students and the needs of local industries and developed a plan to address them.”
The goal is for approximately 80 students each year to complete advanced manufacturing pathways and earn industry-recognized credentials.
“That means more students graduating with valuable skills, more opportunities to pursue rewarding careers close to home, and a stronger pipeline of skilled workers for businesses throughout the region,” Hamilton said.
He called the project an example of what can happen when education, industry, and community partners come together around a shared vision.
One Student’s Story Shows What CTE Can Do
Perhaps the most compelling example of what those opportunities can mean came from Jaydon Leonard, a 2025 Davie County High School graduate who is now studying mechanical engineering at NC State University.
Leonard admitted that several years ago, he had little idea what he wanted to do after high school.
“For a long time, college wasn’t really something that I dreamed about,” he told the crowd.
That changed when he enrolled in drafting at Davie High.
Through the class, Leonard was introduced to 3D design, 3D printing, and engineering.
“For the first time, I was able to take what I had learned and turn it into something real,” he said. “Instead of just learning concepts from a textbook, I could design something and actually bring it to life.”
That experience led to an engineering internship at Avgol, where he used 3D printing and design to help improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Seeing something he had designed actually being used in a manufacturing facility changed the way he viewed his future.
“Those experiences helped me realize that engineering isn’t just something I enjoyed doing — it’s something I could actually build a future around.”
“Today, I’m studying mechanical engineering at NC State University, which I don’t believe I’d be doing if it weren’t for the CTE department and its opportunities.”
Leonard says the experience he gained through Davie High’s CTE program has given him an advantage in college. Some of his classmates are just beginning to learn 3D modeling and engineering concepts he had already spent years working with in high school.
“CTE didn’t just help me figure out what I wanted to do,” Leonard said. “It helped me discover what I was capable of doing.”
His message captured one of the central purposes behind the new facility.
“Just as drafting sparked my passion for engineering, this new building has the potential to create that same sense of purpose in students who have yet to discover their own path,” Leonard said.
“We’re not just breaking new ground for a new building. We’re creating opportunities for future students to discover their dreams and passions that they may not know exist yet.”
A Dream Nearly Four Years in the Making
For Will Marrs, who spearheaded the project, the groundbreaking represented the culmination of nearly four years of persistence.
The idea, he recalled, began simply enough — with a conversation around a lunch table.
“This project is, in fact, a dream,” he said. “It was a lunch table conversation some may regret because at that moment, there wasn’t any looking back for myself, and I haven’t really shut up about the project since.”
Turning that conversation into reality proved much more difficult.
There were challenges finding the necessary funding and long periods when it was uncertain whether the project would ever move forward.
Rather than giving up, supporters continued to reach out to local and state leaders, seeking solutions and building support.
“There are moments where you’re reminded that you have a choice to discuss the obstacles or to discuss the solutions,” he said.
Eventually, the call came confirming that the necessary funding had been secured.
Now, the dirt being turned at Davie High will become the foundation for a facility that its advocates could once only imagine.
“Today is a product of the right people getting together to have the right conversations. What will happen here is more than a building,” he said. “The building is just the vehicle. What is most important about this building is that it eliminates an educational barrier for our students on the way to their dreams.”
Removing a Barrier for Students
One of the most important benefits of the new facility may be something relatively simple: location.
The lab will enable Davie High students to participate in advanced technical coursework without traveling elsewhere for training.
For a student without reliable transportation, that difference can determine whether an opportunity is available at all.
“This facility will mean that a student who may not have the means to be able to take part in a community college-level course now only has to walk a couple of feet,” Marrs explained. “That student is no longer limited by transportation.”
The facility will provide a safe, hands-on environment where students can apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations.
And as the needs of local employers change, the training offered there can evolve with them.
Davidson-Davie Community College Joins the Effort
The project also reflects a growing partnership between Davie County Schools and Davidson-Davie Community College.
The college is providing machining equipment that will be installed in the new facility once construction is complete.
That partnership will help connect high school coursework with more advanced technical education and create a smoother pathway for students interested in continuing their training after graduation.
The facility is also expected to support both Career and Technical Education and Career and College Promise programs, bringing those opportunities together in one location.
“The original goal of this project, as we wrote it into the Golden Leaf grant, is simple yet profound,” shared Davie County High School Principal Cindy Stone. “We want any student who walks through the doors to be exposed to, and hopefully excited about, a career they did not previously know existed. Alyse Wooldridge always tells me, “If they can see it, they can be it,” and I believe her. We want to spark curiosity. We want to ignite passion and show our youth that their potential is limitless right here in Davie County.”
Community Partnerships Made the Project Possible
Throughout the ceremony, school officials repeatedly credited the many partners who helped move the project from an idea to reality.
Among those recognized were Senator Steve Jarvis, Representative Julia Howard, Golden LEAF Foundation President and CEO Scott Hamilton, Davie County Manager Brian Barnett, Davie County Economic Development President Terry Bralley, Davidson-Davie Community College, current and former members of the Davie County Board of Education, school administrators, CTE staff, and other community supporters.
Golden LEAF funding, state appropriations, community support, and the donation of equipment from Davidson-Davie Community College came together to make the facility possible.
The project also demonstrates how closely education and economic development are connected.
For Davie County employers, a stronger technical education program means a larger pool of employees prepared for increasingly sophisticated manufacturing jobs.
For students, it means more chances to build a rewarding career without necessarily having to leave the community where they grew up.
A Groundbreaking First Scoop
Even the ceremonial groundbreaking reflected the kind of hands-on learning the new building is intended to expand.
Rather than beginning with a traditional shovel, Davie High robotics team members Hunter Stevens and Adrian Davis used a robotic arm equipped with a bucket they had 3D printed themselves to take the first scoop of dirt.
It was a fitting demonstration of the creativity, technology, and problem-solving skills already being developed through Davie County Schools’ CTE programs.
Students representing grade levels from preschool through high school then joined Davie High graduate Jayden Leonard for another ceremonial scoop, symbolically representing the generations of students who may eventually benefit from the new facility.
Community leaders, educators, and elected officials followed with the traditional golden shovels.
Building the Workforce — and the Dreams — of Tomorrow
Construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Lab marks another significant investment in preparing Davie County students for the jobs of tomorrow.
But perhaps the most important measure of the project will not be the number of machines inside the building or even the number of credentials earned.
It will be the students who walk through its doors uncertain about their futures and leave having discovered something they are good at, something they enjoy, and perhaps something they never realized could become a career.
As Leonard told the crowd, CTE did more than prepare him for college.
“It was the entire reason I went.”
For future Davie High students, the new Advanced Manufacturing Lab may provide that same spark.
And on October 29, with a robotic arm, a few shovels of dirt, and a community gathered around them, Davie County began building the place where those discoveries can happen.
