Carter Loukota wanted to fix up the 1939 Pontiac sedan parked in the Knoxville High School shop class garage and take it to prom. He’s good with wiring and has considered becoming an electrician, so he enrolled in the school’s industrial arts class. He figured he could use class time to work on the car and get it moving again. The car had already been partly refurbished and featured a 5.3-liter LS engine swap.

That decision changed his direction in high school, and could play a role in his future career choice.

Today, he’s still good at wiring, but he’s also considered the go-to designer for metal fabrication projects, since he mastered the process through drawing and design skills and the use of the Autodesk Fusion software program. 

Teacher’s 10-year trek

When Loukota joined the class, he learned that while there was a focus on car repair like traditional shop classes, there was also an emphasis on manufacturing, where students learned to design parts, cut and weld and program machines. 

His teacher is Sean Sanger. Sanger has worked for the Knoxville Community School District for 23 years, and in the past decade slowly transformed the industrial arts program to include manufacturing skills training. 

“When I came here, we were focused on automotive. We also had a very good reputation for being an automobile town, and that’s what the classes were oriented to,” Sanger said. “Just as time has changed, our cars have become a lot more reliable. We don’t need to work on them quite as often.”

Because of less need for maintenance, Sanger said the number of automotive-related jobs in Knoxville, also known as the “Sprint Car Capital of the World,” has declined. 

“The brakes last longer, the tires last longer, but our manufacturing is growing greatly,” he said. 

When Sanger started at Knoxville High School, the shop class had an air compressor and tire machine. 

“The previous programs were doing great things in automotive, but that was about all we had for equipment. That first year, we put in a car lift for the students,” Sanger said. 

Today, thanks in part to a grant from local employer 3M, the school now has a welder, plasma cutter, mills and other equipment used in the creation of manufactured metal parts and designs. 

The students are trained on Autodesk Fusion, a design and manufacturing software program commonly used in manufacturing that integrates computer-aided design and engineering and printed circuit boards. 

“If you have a project with a passion to do it, make something, the learning becomes easier. It’s like all these young men here. They say they don’t like math class, but they do math. They do trigonometry here, and they don’t realize it,” Sanger said. “The project makes them learn because they want a product, they want to finish something, and it makes the learning that much easier.”

For years, Sanger has worked to add more equipment to the industrial arts program and in December, his vision was realized. 

Investing in classrooms

School officials and several executives from 3M gathered on Dec. 4 to unveil a $383,000 grant and a newly outfitted industrial arts space, now called the Future Makers Lab. The makers lab is part of a nationwide effort by 3M to attract more students to manufacturing, especially with statistics reporting that the manufacturing industry will need millions of more workers within the next several years. 

Michael Stroik, vice president of community impact for 3M, said at the event that the company works with the Manufacturing Institute, part of the National Association of Manufacturers. The organization has spotlighted trends to look for jobs that will open in advance manufacturing in the coming years. 

“The number that we have is 3.8 million additional manufacturing workers needed by 2033,” he said. “About half of those will go unfilled based on current trends around training and development.”

3M has operated a factory in Knoxville for 51 years. The company employs 62,000 people worldwide, 23,000 in the U.S. and 560 people in Knoxville, a city of 7,600 residents. 

Trishia Hauck, director of operations at 3M’s Knoxville plant, said the company donated more than $575,000 to organizations across Marion County in 2025. 

“Our vision is to create local excitement through the educational programs for local manufacturing and encourage more students to stay for the really good jobs that are here and available in this community,” she said. 

The Knoxville 3M location produces millions of yards of tape annually. Some of those tapes and adhesives are used in industrial applications, such as vehicle manufacturing, building construction, semiconductor materials, sanitized test strips, personal protective equipment and renewable energy equipment. The company is always refining products; it earned 1,400 patents in 2024. 

3M also operates a plant in Ames that produces sandpaper and abrasives products and employs about 375 people. In June, the facility unveiled new laser converting lines for its automotive abrasives products. In addition to the industrial-grade adhesives manufactured in Iowa, 3M also produces consumer products like Scotch Brand tape.

The company is looking for the next generation of students trained in skilled trades who can solve complex problems. 

“Something we learned is that people really respect manufacturing, but they’re not connecting it to innovation, to technology, to the future of work,” Stroik said. “That’s something that we want to take on.”

With the Future Makers Lab, she said “we’re building a space that can create a new narrative around trades and opportunity for the future.”

3M has teamed up with Heart of America, a nonprofit focused on equity in education, to transform school spaces into modernized learning labs, where students become familiar with everything from plasma cutters to robots. Heart of America converted the shop class space in Knoxville in five weeks. 

“This project reflects what’s possible when education, industry and community come together,” Jill Hardy Heath, Heart of America’s president and CEO, said at the event. “It’s a true public-private partnership model, and we have a shared goal, and that is creating opportunity for the next generation and the students here in Knoxville. This isn’t just about a newly designed space, but it’s about giving students the tools and access to the skills and confidence that will shape their future.”

Knoxville High School Principal Tracy Wilkins credited Sanger with the creation of the new space. 

“This is a vision that came to be about eight to 10 years ago when we had [Sanger] come to me and say, ‘This is my vision. This is what I’d like to do. How do we start?’ One thing that he has done has been very persistent and been patient in getting a piece of equipment at a time,” Wilkins said. “The other thing that’s been amazing with his vision is the partners that he’s brought on board. We couldn’t be doing this without all of our partnerships.” 

The future of the Knoxville makers

At the December event, Knoxville students gave 3M executives a tour of the new lab. Seniors Seth Elbert and Jarek Hoch showed visitors the plasma table, where designs are plugged into the table’s computer and the table guides the metal cutting. Elbert said the machine is relatively easy to learn. 

“It takes some getting used to. It’s not simpler, but it’s easy to learn. You’ve got to know your way around the computer a little bit,” he said. “Last year, I got to know the ropes a little bit, and then when I came back this year, it took me like two days to warm up to it again.”

Elbert said he’s thinking about becoming a police officer after high school.

“I’ve always wanted to be a cop. I’ve gotten into [metal fabrication] because all my friends are getting into it. I enjoy it. It’s definitely in the back of my mind, if I want to do it [as a job].”

Hoch said he enjoys working with the plasma table, but doesn’t love the design work. 

“Carter over there, he’s our big designer, so he’ll design most of our stuff, and then send them to me, and then I’ll end up cutting it out,” he said. “Then it will go to Tanner if it needs welding.”

Hoch is unsure if he would consider the work for a career. 

“It’s definitely a cool skill to have. I don’t know going forward if this is totally what I want to do, but it’s definitely an option,” he said. 

Loukota, who is a senior, said the Pontiac isn’t ready for the prom yet. 

“It’s been sitting here since 2016 and hasn’t been done. I wanted to finish it but I don’t think I’m going to get there. I haven’t had a chance to work on it this year,” he said. 

While he joined the class to learn automotive skills, he said he hasn’t minded learning Fusion. 

“I kind of just got thrown into this. I’m not the most creative person ever, so that class is a little bit of a struggle, because you have to be creative in there,” he said. “But I was really good at knowing the real-world capabilities, knowing what you can do [with fabrication equipment]. That’s why Sanger put me onto this. I can use somebody else for creativity, or I can look up ideas.” 

Loukota said he’s still deciding on his career path.

“I’m not quite sure yet. I’m thinking [of being] an electrician because I’ve always enjoyed wiring. Sanger wanted me to do this class this year because I was good with Fusion last year, so he thought I’d be good with the mill,” he said. 

Whether Loukota finishes the Pontiac or not, Sanger said that projects like it are doing what they’re meant to do: Give students enough experience to discover what they’re good at, whatever they choose as a career.