Manufacturing Student Among First to Earn Bachelor's Degree at Tri-C

IDMET program gave Giovanna Ciaravino the tools to hit the ground running at Swagelok, where she will begin work following graduation

Giovanna Ciaravino grew up in a house where tools were part of everyday life. Her family's historic property in Middleburg Heights includes a barn said to be the first built in the city, along with horses, chickens and dogs. Her mother sent the kids outdoors in the morning and called them in for dinner. "It was like Little House on the Prairie," Ciaravino said.

Her early exposure to tools led her down a path to become among the first graduates of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®)’s first bachelor’s degree program. This spring she will earn a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Digital Manufacturing Engineering Technology.

A Career Calling

When Ciaravino finished high school in 2022, she had no career plan. Her parents suggested she feel things out by calling local businesses and asking to shadow for a day. She tried a dental hygienist and several technical workplaces. Then she spent a day at, of all places, a prosthetics firm in Strongsville.

Past the doctor's offices and fitting rooms were a manufacturing floor with sanders, molds, plaster and molten plastic.

"It was, by far, one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. Seeing artificial limbs hanging from the walls, you're like, this is kind of freaky, but it's kind of cool," she said. “You see resin that’s forming, and it’s getting hot. You see plastic that’s being melted down to droop in this eyedrop shape.”

Ciaravino discovered that she liked making things. She liked the tactility of working with physical objects and the satisfaction of being able to hold what you build. The company offered her a job and taught her to build artificial limbs from scratch.

“I am inquisitive about how stuff works. I would always help my brothers and my father with things that they would be building,” Ciaravino said. “So, grabbing a tool as a kid, I was like, ‘Heck yeah.’ Even just holding a flashlight for my dad, which was enough.”

Forging a Path

Ciaravino’s parents impressed upon her the importance of attending college, but she was going to have to pay for it herself. She enrolled at Tri-C, which offered the coursework she needed at a price she could handle.

“I had to be choosy about how I spent my money,” she said.  

What began as an exercise in thrift, however, soon turned into an educational experience she said she wouldn’t trade. She earned an Honors Fellowship and completed an Associate of Arts degree with no debt.

“I don’t think people give enough credit to Tri-C,” Ciaravino said.

After completing her associate degree, she decided, after talking to some of her faculty mentors, to enroll in the College’s new IDMET bachelor’s degree program. But Ciaravino had doubts. As a new program, would it prepare her for real-world work? She got her answer soon enough.

"I felt like I was locked and loaded with skills that actually worked,” she said. Her coursework “literally applied to 100% of everything I did there."

“You have no clue what it’s like to go into class and do hands-on work with equipment. You learn about the electrical and mechanical control mechanisms for motor control. You learn about electrical and wiring circuits. If you've never done it before well you’re about to figure it out because it’s one of the classes you take,” Ciaravino said.

The IDMET bachelor’s program aims to merge a unique skill set into one degree. It blends understanding of traditional manufacturing methods with the demands of today’s high-tech manufacturing environment and combines classroom work with hands-on learning, often on the same machines used by manufacturing companies in Northeast Ohio, many of which collaborated with Tri-C on the curriculum.

An internship at Swagelok proved the point. The industrial fluid-systems manufacturing company is headquartered in Solon, Ohio. Ciaravino was assigned to four main projects, where the hands-on work she did in class was immediately applicable.

“I felt like I was locked and loaded with skills that actually worked,” she said. Her coursework “literally applied to 100% of everything I did there.”

In a job market that increasingly values skills as much as credentials, Ciaravino discovered that Tri-C’s first bachelor’s program had the secret sauce. Swagelok offered her a job, and she will start full-time work there after graduation.

The IDMET bachelor’s program was launched at the College in 2024. Seven IDMET students will be counted as the first to attain bachelor’s degrees at Tri-C when they complete the program this spring.

Ciaravino credits the support she received from professors and staff as a big part of her success.

“I've formed lifelong relationships with all of my professors, even the dean of the program. We are very, very close. I love them like my family,” she said.

Like her real family, her extended family at Tri-C has given her tools — tools that will help her build the next phase of her life.

Interning at Swagelok, in Ciaravino's Words

When I went to Swagelok, they said, “You're our first Tri-C intern, so all eyes are on you because we're a part of the advising board for Tri-C and have had input into what you’re learning.” So, the pressure was there.

Even at the time, meeting interns at other companies and touring manufacturing environments, people would ask, “What university do you go to?” And I'm like, “I’m from Tri-C,” and everybody's jaw constantly dropped. They're like, “What are you doing here?” I said, “Tri-C has a bachelor's program. It's really great.”

And it wasn't until I got to Swagelok and I saw what they were doing that I realized how applicable the work in class was to the work there. I was given four main projects, and I picked up additional ones on the side, too. But I was given four main projects that I had to progress through, and they were ones that actually assisted their automation engineering team, automating their cells and creating robotics in the manufacturing environment.

I was watching them doing it and they're like, “We're programming this robot. Do you know anything about it?” I'm like, “Yeah, I know about it. Can I help?”

I was jumping in on just in my internship. I didn't have to really be taught. I was doing it. I was able to run tests on the automated cells and get them up and going and working as part of the production line.

November 03, 2026