Cento Anni custom woodworking in Holland has been an outstanding partner to the Hamilton Community Schools Work Based Learning program for years. Every year, Hamilton Middle School students visit the company to learn more about their operations and assist them with a driving question.
"We feel a real calling to work with our community and help the young children," said Cento Anni founder, Ed DeNave.
This year, Mr. Luhmann's sixth grade class is helping to solve the driving question, "How can we improve the customer experience from the entrance to the showroom?"
"More often than not, the students come up with great ideas and we can execute a lot of their ideas," DeNave added. "The biggest mutual benefit is a driving question that is actually something that we can implement. This is a project where we're going to implement some version of what they come up with because we've identified it as a need."
Every time the HMS students visit, DeNave and his partner Randy say they're impressed with the students passion and professionalism. He hopes that one day, the circle is completed and a Hamilton graduate can work for them, much like 2022 Hamilton High School graduate, Ashley Koopman.
"I think Hamilton leads in this regard by putting kids at this age out there to do more project based learning," he added.
