When St. Patrick High School junior Aaron Serrano learned that his school was creating an engineering, fabrication and manufacturing program, he was “so excited” because it would help him pursue his dream of becoming a mechanical engineer.

“Since I was really young, I wanted to be an engineer like my dad and follow in his footsteps,” Serrano said. “When I heard I could take courses here directly related to engineering and the same stuff that people would be taking in college-level courses for engineering, it was incredible.”

Some of the work he is doing is on par with what he would do in the workforce and has already borne fruit.

“Even this past summer, I was working for a robotics company, and we were doing 3D modeling and prototyping parts,” Serrano said. “The work that we are doing here is definitely the work they were doing there.”

That makes St. Pat’s Principal John Harrington happy.

Before coming to St. Pat’s, 5900 W. Belmont Ave., Harrington worked at a school that had a similar lab and he saw firsthand the effect it had on students. Having taught at St. Pat’s previously, he knew that the school had a diverse student body that could benefit the program.

“Pat’s is a school where we’re going to send kids to University of Illinois engineering, Northwestern and Notre Dame, but we’re also going to send kids that might also want to get into the trades,” he said.

With one program, the school can serve both types of students, who come from over 137 different grade schools in the city.

Creating the STEM-related program did not make St. Pat’s into a trade school, Harrington noted. Instead, the school is providing important educational opportunities both for students who want to pursue a four-year degree or and those who want to enter the trades after graduation.

“This is the truest STEM that you can do,” Harrington said. “These kids are doing math at a level that I never could conceive of. … A lot of public schools in this area aren’t doing this and certainly no private schools are.”

Some students learn well through books and others learn best through hands on projects, Harrington said.

“Now we have a program that hits all types of learners,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing and we’re lucky to have it.”

Harrington reached out to local colleges who had similar programs to search for an instructor for the lab, and hired Magdalena Kruszynska-Piper at nearby Triton College in River Grove.

Kruszynska-Piper had over 20 years’ experience as a mechanical engineer before starting to teach full-time at Triton in 2020. Kruszynska-Piper now splits her time between the college and St. Pat’s.

The school intended to offer one dual-credit class for 30 students in fall 2024, but that mushroomed to four classes when over 100 students signed up. This year, Kruszynska-Piper and the school added other courses, such as introduction to fabrication and introduction to engineering, and created a five-year program that begins in the students’ freshman year.

Students can also enroll in a three-year program leading to Advanced CAD Programming certification. They receive hands-on exposure to 3D printing, CNC machining, laser cutting, and more.

Today, over 30% of St. Pat’s students are enrolled in at least one of the courses.

Students can also take evening classes at Triton College and earn college credits. The program gives valuable experience and vital certifications to students who might want to enter the trades, Kruszynska-Piper said.