Leadership Lodi goes back to school
School was in session for the Leadership Lodi 2017 Class on Education Day, an all-day field trip that spanned the educational services and opportunities in Lodi and San Joaquin County, from kindergarten through higher education.
The day began at the LUSD headquarters where the class quizzed the school board president, the senior director of operations, the associate superintendent, and the assistant superintendent on a range of topics. They discussed the pros and cons of having such a large school district (LUSD covers 350 square miles and enrolls nearly 30,000 students), being the largest employer in Lodi with 3,000 employees, their anticipated loss of revenue under the current administration, their plans for utilizing Measure U funding, and the benefits of being a 1:1 device school district.
The class then boarded the bus to make the short trip to Lincoln Technical Academy/Lodi Adult School where students showed off the drones and robots they programmed in their computer programming and game design class. Principal Deborah Chiene took the class through the school’s on-campus courses that serve both high school students and adult students, which included everything from manufacturing principles to fire science to hospitality tourism management and entrepreneurship. The academy also runs all of the career tech classes district-wide at the high schools, including the culinary arts program at McNair High School, which the class experienced first hand on its next stop.
At McNair High, Leadership Lodi went from classroom to classroom observing the creative and dynamic teaching styles of the staff and saw LUSD’s 1:1 device ratio in person with Chromebooks for every student in every classroom and 31 smart screens throughout the school. The visit to McNair culminated in a delicious lunch prepared and served by the culinary arts students and chef Matthew Owens.
The next stop on the field trip was Humphreys University in Stockton, a nonprofit university that offers associate, bachelor, and masters degrees in a variety of fields, as well as a doctorate degree at their Drivon School of Law. High school seniors can also take a class of their choice for free during Humphrey’s summer quarter.
The class then hopped over to San Joaquin Delta College and got to tour the Center for Microscopy and Allied Science, which has the only Electron Microscopy Lab at a community college in the entire country. Students get a hands-on education on how to use the equipment, sample preparation, and practical theory of the electron microscope, preparing them for a lucrative career in the growing field of nanotechnology.
The day concluded at University of the Pacific, the oldest university in California. Two fantastic student tour guides took Leadership Lodi throughout the campus, stopping in at the School of Engineering, where Professor Mary Kay Camarillo spoke about efforts to promote the Society of Women Engineers, the Conservatory of Music, where the orchestra practiced a complex piece from West Side Story, the School of Education, and the Health, Exercise, and Sport Sciences Department. The class was inspired by the Dean of the School of Education, Dr. Vanessa Sheared, whose career journey has been led by her ability to identify a problem and determine what role she can play in solving it.
As the Leadership Lodi class continues to work on its One-Eighty Teen Center renovation and safety-improvement project, the members can keep Dr. Sheared’s words in mind: “Leaders always find a way to say yes.”