The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Students meet with education official
Out of thousands of Ohio public schools, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria visited Wickliffe High School to discuss the district’s unique programming.
After hearing from administration, business leaders and even students, DeMaria said he felt “energized and excited.”
“I’m in a place where there is innovative thinking,” he said during the May 9 event. “We always think of schools as equipping students with English skills, math skills, social studies, science skills; but what I heard here was more of that next-level thinking that goes beyond those. It is the idea of global awareness and understanding things happening around you, your place in society and what is actually happening in society and in the world.
“The other piece is what comes next and the exposure to careers,” he added. “My confidence level that these students are going to be great in some way shape or form as they transition to what comes after high school is high and I feel really good about that.”
There were nine high school juniors and seniors in the meeting with DeMaria. They were given the opportunity to discuss their involvement in the Early College Early Career and the Learn Lead Serve programs.
The students who are involved in the Early College Early Career Program explained that they took a college course at Cuyahoga Community College and interned at Swagelok in Highland Heights.
“We got to work with engineers at Swagelok, so we got to see what it’s like in the real world,” said Tommy Shirer, a junior at Wickliffe High School.
His classmate De’Narre McRae said the experience was life-changing and created additional opportunities, including college offers.
The students agreed that the hands-on experience was invaluable and they would highly recommend the program to other students. Terrence Robinson, who is the workforce development and economic inclusion vice president for Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network, and Early College and Early Career Director Autumn Russell further discussed the logistics and growth of the Early College and Early Career program.
“Where we are now is a program, that because of first having Wickliffe High School on, then MC2 STEM High School in Cleveland, we were able to grow to three other high schools,” said Robinson. “Our program started with four main manufacturers which was Swagelok, Lincoln Electric, Parker Hannifin and Nordson, but because of the work that was done here between Joe (Wickliffe Schools Superintendent Joseph Spicca), Julie (Director of Strategic Innovation Julie Ramos) and their team, we were able to expand to the medium size manufacturers — the true workforce.
“We brought on Universal Metal Products and Fredon,” he added. “We have two or three more companies that are going to come on next year and we just went through another recruitment, so we have an additional cohort of students that will launch next fall.”
The students in the Learn Lead Serve Program also shared similar experiential learning experiences.
“It is a service-based learning class where we talk about economics , politics, poverty,” said senior Riley Pugh.
In addition to raising money for several local causes, the students volunteer at various sites, such as the elementary schools, Lake Health West Medical Center, Broadmoor School and Lake County Board of Developmental Disabilities/Deepwood.
The students agreed that the experiences they gained through these programs helped solidify their postgraduation decisions.