(Justmeans.com / CSR News) - Spring training took on a South Philly accent when three Campbell Soup Company Engineering employees helped a team of Camden students train Rocky, a new heavyweight champion -- made of aluminum.

Thanks to a grant from the Campbell Soup Foundation and mentoring by the Campbell Engineering Leaders, students from Camden County Technical School (CCTS) built Rocky Robot, a lean, mean roving machine, for the annual FIRST Championship in Atlanta.

FIRST -- an acronym for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" -- is a New Hampshire-based nonprofit group that works to inspire young people's interest and participation in engineering and science. The organization is the brainchild of Dan Kamen, inventor of the Segway.

After winning the Underwriters Laboratories Safety Award at a regional contest at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the Camden County high school students went on to compete at the Georgia Dome with 11,000 other youths from all 50 states and more than 28 countries. This is the 12th year that a team from CCTS participated in the event.

The students, many from the city of Camden, built the robot, wrote the software program to run it, machined and welded the parts, and much more.

The Campbell volunteers helped design and build Rocky. They also provided career advice and job shadowing days at Campbell's world headquarters in Camden.

 "What the students learn in this program is invaluable because of the engineering challenges it presents and the rewards it offers," John Baranowski, Campbell Engineering Program Manager said. "It gives them a tremendous sense of teamwork, pride and self-confidence."