Ward Melville High program trains for technology jobs

Seventeen-year-old Michael Munoz of South Setauket may represent the future of Long Island's manufacturing technology industry, if he can be persuaded to stay here.

As a senior at Ward Melville High School, Munoz is one of 18 students enrolled in a unique program at the Setauket school called the Mechatronics Academy. The students spend one period a day studying various phases of manufacturing technology.

"I've always liked to work with my hands," Munoz said last week. "I was thinking about pursing a career in mechanical engineering."

According to Linda Messina, director of career and technology programming at the Three Village Central School District, which includes Ward Melville High, the goal is to train students for manufacturing technology jobs to replace the baby boomers who are retiring.

"There is a need for [this program] because the workforce we have is aging," Messina said. "Where are we going to get the people from?"

The district applied for and has received a New York State Perkins IV grant that now totals about $60,000 for equipment and supplies for the program, which began this year.

Rachel Gallagher, 15, of Stony Brook, signed up for the academy even though her career plans focus on becoming a doctor.

"This is an interesting subject," Gallagher said. "It's interesting to make things with your own hands and know where they came from instead of coming from a store."

The 18 students can receive college credit for the courses that can be applied at Suffolk County Community College. John Lombardo, the college's director of corporate training, was asked whether manufacturing - hard hit by recession - is a viable career path.

Lombardo said that in 2009, some $500 million in contracts were won by Long Island manufacturing companies. "It's not dead," Lombardo said. "But it's changed" from metal bending to more technology-oriented jobs.

Munoz wants to enter the field, but will he stay on Long Island? "I was thinking of moving off Long Island," he said. "It's crowded and taxes are high as hell."

SECURITY: New purpose at old Grumman Plant 5

Just in time for spring, a new industry will be taking root on Long Island - homeland security.

The Applied Science Center of Innovation and Excellence in Homeland Security is slated to open in early March, in a completely renovated Plant 5 on the grounds of the old Grumman company in Bethpage.

Ten companies are ultimately expected to locate at the three-story, 90,000-square-foot facility. Two - Balfour Technologies and Power Management Corp. - are already there, said Raymond Donnelly, deputy executive director of the Long Island Forum for Technology (LIFT), which has been a prime mover behind the facility. LIFT and Northrop Grumman Corp. will also be at the facility, with Northrop Grumman occupying the entire top floor. The companies are together so that they may cooperate with one another on projects, share ideas and form a new industry.

The opening will be marked by a ceremony honoring C. Kenneth Morrelly, who was president of LIFT. Morrelly, who died Oct. 1 at age 64 of a heart attack, spent years spearheading the effort to build the facility. Morrelly will posthumously receive a man of the year award from his longtime friend, Jerry Hultin, a former Navy undersecretary.

FUNDRAISING: 10-year-old makes a stand for charity

One of Long Island's youngest entrepreneurs and fundraisers is Helena Schnorr, 10, who through selling hot chocolate and brownies in the driveway of her Bay Shore home collected $680 for the Haitian relief effort.

"My mom wanted to fund-raise in some way," Helena, a fifth-grader at South Country Elementary School, said. "I thought I could do a bake sale but I changed my idea and I thought of a name and I made a poster and my mom and I baked brownies."

The name was Hot Chocolate for Haiti, and Helena set up a stand a few days after the earthquake and sold the drinks and cakes from noon to 4:30 p.m. She made $160 - $140 from the goods, and $20 was dropped into a collection box. The rest came from matching dollars from her mom. Carol Schnorr, her dad, Joseph, and the people at dad's Manhattan office, Bank of New York Mellon. The money went to the American Red Cross.

The couple have two other children, Sarah, 17, and Spencer, 14. They raised money for tsunami victims in Southeast Asia in 2004.

Helena said she heard about the Haiti quake on the news. "I just wanted to give back to them," she said.

"She [Helena] set a good example for her peers and it proved to her and the neighbors that one kid can make a difference," Carol Schnorr said.