Potential Magazine Spring 2016 | Page 17

CARCAM (Consortium for Alabama Regional Center for Automobile Manufacturing) is comprised of a network of community colleges partnering together to produce a highly-skilled workforce for today’s manufacturing field. Educating students in today’s cutting-edge technology, they attract, enroll and help graduate students specifically for automotive manufacturing careers. To keep training relevant to the industry’s needs, CARCAM works directly with industry leaders such as Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes and others to give graduates an advantage. Mavon Copeland is a successful CARCAM graduate who earned an Associate of Applied Science Degree from Wallace State Community College. “I had always been interested in electronics and robotics and decided to change my major again,” said Copeland, “I kind of took off from there and enjoy everything about it to this day.” Copeland took advantage of a co-op/internship opportunity while attending Wallace State. He attended classes on campus two days a week and drove to Smyrna, Tennessee for the weekends where he shadowed maintenance technicians at Nissan’s Battery Plant. IMAGES COURTESY OF HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA AND NISSAN NORTH AMERICA. Copeland has continued to soar within his field and as a Maintenance Technologist at the Nissan Battery Plant. This facility produces the lithium ion batteries for Nissan’s “Green” technology vehicle, the Leaf. www.potentialmagazine.com Spring 2016 | 17