Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
Lazarus Crawford dreamed of becoming a pilot.
It’s all he wanted to do with his life.
“Ever since I was a kid, just riding the planes or traveling or anything like that, it would be the weightless feeling. Flying commercially just made me fall in love with it,” Crawford said, his eyes brightening following his address as one of two student speakers at the Center for Workforce Development’s summer Night of Celebration.
The event on Wednesday in Grand Canyon University’s Sunset Auditorium celebrated almost 60 aspiring machinists and semiconductor technicians who completed their programs.
Watching his uncles, both pilots, fed Crawford's fascination.
One flew medical evacuation helicopters; the other, commercial airplanes. Crawford was determined to do the same.
He yearned to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon, a supersonic, multirole tactical fighter aircraft, for the military. But he didn’t have the 20/20 vision required. So he turned his attention to commercial airlines.
He had it all planned out – he wanted to fly for Delta, he said – and had started flight school.
But then last summer, those plans just faded away.
A brutal car accident left the then-21-year-old with a fractured skull, broken neck, weeks of recovery time, and a shattered spirit.
“I was no longer medically qualified to fly. Hearing that news was devastating,” he said of his injuries, with head and neck trauma being considered a risk for blackouts or seizures and limiting how fast you can turn your neck to check gauges.
That realization left Crawford adrift.
“After my accident, I struggled to see a future for myself. Flying had always been my dream, and when I was told I was no longer medically fit to fly, it felt as if I had lost a part of my identity.
“For a long time, I questioned what my purpose was and where I was supposed to go next.”
Crawford knew he wanted to work with his hands.
A counselor steered him toward GCU’s computer numerical control machinist certificate program, offered by the Center for Workforce Development, which is part of the university’s College of Engineering and Technology. Crawford, whose mother earned a master’s degree in psychology from GCU, was among the 13 who completed the semester-long pathway on Wednesday. He is employed already at Phoenix machine shop Molex and also landed an internship at Wal-Tek Industries.
CNC machining students weren’t the only ones who completed their program this summer.
Forty-four wrapped up coursework for the manufacturing specialist intensive pathway funded by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a 1,100-acre, multiple fabrication plant megacampus in north Phoenix that produces custom microchips. It is among a slew of technology and semiconductor manufacturing companies that have earned the Phoenix metropolitan area the nickname of Silicon Desert.
Those honored at Wednesday’s ceremony are the latest to complete CFWD coursework since the university’s trades education center was launched in 2022. These are quick-turn, hands-on trade pathways and certificate programs that run up to 15 weeks and prepare participants for apprenticeships.
Just four years ago, 39 participants fulfilled course requirements in the center’s only offering at the time, the pre-apprenticeship for electricians. More than 1,000 students have enrolled in the various pathways and certificate programs the center now offers, which includes not just electrician, CNC machinist and semiconductor technician options but also construction tracks.
In the fall, the CFWD will launch the financial aid-eligible construction program, which features options such as HVAC, civil construction, and mechanical/plumbing, to name a few.
Later down the road, the center plans to launch a two-semester program to support Amkor Technology, a semiconductor packaging and test services provider. Amkor is expected to complete its $7 billion Peoria, Arizona, facility in mid-2027 and begin production in early 2028.
What’s also exciting for the CFWD, said Director Shelly Seitz, is that the inaugural group of 39 participants to complete the center’s pre-apprenticeship for electricians pathway are wrapping up their four-year apprenticeship this year and will be journeymen.
GCU President Brian Mueller at the event emphasized the magnitude of what’s going on in the trades and that the university wants to be at the forefront.
“We are embarking on a period of time now where we are going to become the biggest builder of things again,” Mueller said. “Manufacturing has to be brought back to this country, the building (of things) has to be brought back to this country – and you as students have an opportunity. …
“You’ve already made the first step going through this pre-apprenticeship program, but the next step, and the next step and the next step is open to you,” he said, urging those at the Night of Celebration to work hard and learn all they can to move up from the ground level.
Keynote speaker Kate Glantz, who has worked for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and served in the Peace Corps in Tanzania and Senegal, knows firsthand the importance of the trades. She co-founded a media company called Move Over Bob, which focuses on stories about women in the skilled trades. The company's first magazine featured six former GCU Center for Workforce Development participants on the cover, and the fall issue will feature another former CFWD learner.
Glantz, who said she thrives on swan-diving into the unknown, told the audience, "About two years ago, I had absolutely no prior knowledge of construction."
But she enrolled in a one-semester carpentry program. She didn't want to just talk about the trades but experience them, understand them and help change the story about them.
"I had no idea what I was getting into, and it really transformed my mindset and my reality," Glantz said.
She encouraged students at the event to put themselves in conversations that might be uncomfortable or intimidating.
"Just give yourself permission to imagine ... let your curiosity outweigh your fear and know what matters to you before the world tells you what should."
The growth of trades education at GCU has been phenomenal, said Seitz, and that growth continues to ramp up.
TSMC Manufacturing Department Manager Jackie Fan, one of four representatives from TSMC attending the Night of Celebration, said, “Because of the massive expansion on all our sites – it’s currently announced to be $165 billion for the whole site – we’re constantly hiring, a massive hiring, of technicians.”
By the end of the year, Fan said he needs to hire 100 more technicians, and next year, a couple hundred more.
“So now we are working with GCU to try to enlarge the cohort size for this MSI program,” he said.
Currently, GCU is teaching 80-person cohorts.
“Now, we’re asking them for 100- to 120-person cohorts.”
Dominic Hopwood was one of the participants completing the semiconductor technician pathway.
He has done trades work before, including electrical work and completed his studies for an HVAC certificate, and he was a delivery driver for an Edible Arrangements company.
But lately, he’s been hearing so much about TSMC.
“I wanted to do this because of the opportunity,” Hopwood said. “TSMC … they’re just growing, and you just see nothing but all kinds of news about them. I saw an opportunity for a career.”
He said just to get into the MSI pathway, he earned his GED. He completed everything he needed to do in just two months.
“I had three days to pass the assessment test and start the program the very next day. I had to get going,” he said.
Hopwood shared that he had signed up for refrigeration school but then saw that what GCU offered, because of the industry funding from TSMC, would be free to him. Refrigeration school meant taking out a $30,000 student loan.
“It’s paid for. It sets you up for a career … It was a no-brainer for me,” he said.
John Crist, the evening’s second student speaker, also completed the semiconductor technician pathway after he thought he was going to retire in the job he was in previously.
“I built a career I was proud of,” Crist said. “ … Years of dedication paid off. A lot of us here today have felt the security of that.”
Then artificial intelligence arrived and, “I had become obsolete,” he said.
His wife came across information for the GCU semiconductor technician program.
“I had to remind myself, when the power of the loom arrived, textile workers were displaced. When the digital switchboard was introduced, telephone operators were displaced.”
Like Crawford, who dreamed of being a pilot, Crist had to pivot – and with his program completed, his hopes are high he won’t be obsolete.
Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected]
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