Over the past year, Nic Drummey, a 17-year-old Biddeford High School student who takes courses at Biddeford Regional Center of Technology, has been 3-D printing cookie cutters for MugBuddyCookies, a company that creates small, decorative cookies that rest on the edges of coffee mugs.
“I started working for Märgen two years ago, and she was getting her cookie cutters somewhere else, and this year I brought up that I could ask my teacher if I could help make her cookie cutters because he lets us use the printer whenever we want,” said Drummey, who studies architecture and engineering at the COT, on Thursday.
Ed Driscoll, Drummey’s teacher who specializes in architecture and design, said the project was developed entirely by Drummey himself.
“Nic brought the project to me,” Driscoll said Thursday. “He told me he worked (for MugBuddyCookies) and said, ‘Could I design some cookie cutters?’”
The school helped Drummey download the proper software to use the printer, which creates three-dimensional objects by extruding hot plastic in successive layers according to a pre-programmed design. Drummey designs the cookie cutters on his own time, and then brings the designs into the classroom for printing.
And, while most of the designs are given to Nic to print, he has also designed a couple of the cutters himself.
Driscoll said Drummey’s initiative is a perfect example of the COT’s mission: to prepare students for skilled technical careers through experiential learning.
“(Drummey) saw the connection between what he was learning in my class and what he was doing at the company. For me as an instructor, it’s the ideal situation,” Driscoll said. “It’s where the community is benefitting, the student’s getting a real experience I can’t give them out of a book and his classmates are also watching the process.”
Driscoll said he often assists students in seeking internships or other career-related programs. Sometimes he will help with a student-designed project, as in Drummey’s case, and sometimes he’ll suggest proactive students to clients looking for labor.
In either case, he and the school are helping to bring skilled workers to the Biddeford area.
“Biddeford really doesn’t get enough credit for the number of businesses that are here,” Driscoll said. “A lot of it is connections and experience.”
Drummey agreed.
“(The COT) gives you a better idea of what you’d like to do for a career in the long-term,” he said. “I do have a better idea of what I want to do. Before, I had a few other career ideas but COT really helps thin them down.
“It helps you figure out what you’re good at,” he said.
As for Soliman, she couldn’t be happier to have Drummey on board.
“It’s absolutely exciting and really wonderful to get to work with him because he’s got lots of ideas and fresh perspectives on things,” she said Thursday. “I enjoy being able to give back to the community in what way I can, and I feel this is a really great relationship to be working with the high school and with a student who can actually put this on their resume.”
Drummey isn’t stopping anytime soon. Currently, he’s working on a line of Maine-inspired cookie cutter designs, including lighthouses and lobster traps. All the hype comes at an exciting time, as the small company has recently been signed onto a national corporate account.
Drummey, who intends to become either an architect or an engineer, said he’s satisfied with the work he’s done with MugBuddyCookies so far, and looks forward to continue working with the company for as long as he can.
“I like to design things,” he said. “It’s good to know that I had something more than just boxing to do with it.”
— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.
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