Forging the future: Steelmaker looks to educate, interest future engineers

It’s billed as a day to give high school students who plan to become engineers a taste of the field. Dave Barensfeld, though, conceded that it’s also kind of a big help wanted ad. Barensfeld is the chairman of the board of The Ellwood Group, which hosted its 14th annual High School Engineering Day on Thursday at its Ellwood Quality Steels plant on Moravia Street. We are in the recruiting business, he said. We are growing as a company. We’ve been around for 110 years, and we plan to be around as a family-owned company for another 100 years. And we need more engineers. We already have recruited a number of good engineers into our company from people who presented in earlier years at this event. He noted that The Ellwood Group makes parts for both business and America’s military. These are important parts, and this is an important business, Barensfeld said, and we need young people who are going to come into our ranks. Carrie Rust, The Ellwood Group’s vice president of human resources, noted that experience in engineering can have far-reaching effects in the students lives.