LH hosts Career and Technical Education Showcase
PEARCY — Lake Hamilton High School was one of 14 schools that held a Regional Career and Technical Education Showcase last month, featuring 15 student speakers, multiple tours of the school’s CTE areas and the history of the school’s CTE program by Principal Donald Westerman.
The school board and the CTE staff at Lake Hamilton met in 2019 to improve the school district’s program, Westerman said.
“Plans were laid, and then 2020 — and it’s just a big yellow blob right there — we all know that COVID shut the world down, slowed down all of our plans for sure,” he said, referencing a slide in a multimedia presentation.
“But in the spring of ‘21, we picked back up and decided that we were ready to move forward with some efforts to bring back a great career technical education program, something that was going to provide lots and lots of opportunities for our students. And also, we had in mind that we were going to provide opportunities for our community as we prepared students to enter our workforce, as we prepared students to kind of enter a new economy coming out of COVID.”
As part of the updated program, Westerman said the district cultivated partnerships with local industries.
“We now have career program-specific advisory,” he said. “So, for instance, in our Construction Technology Advisory, there are a number of people who are involved with the construction industry who meet with our teachers, and they meet frequently. … Those meetings that we have are, again, this one specific, program study specific, and they involve conversations that are around instruction, around curriculum, around skills.
“So industry is informing our instruction. Industry is informing our curriculum. Industry is also providing a lot of hands-on opportunities, and with that, I mean opportunities for students to be able to walk into Cobalt (Aero Services) or to Triumph (Airborne Structures) or to the
Cabinet Door Shop and see the technology that’s being used, be able to see a real workplace environment.”
Following Westerman’s comments, a short video highlighted some of the 14 programs Lake Hamilton School District has in its Career and Technical Education program, including digital marketing, construction technology, sports medicine, audio/video technology and film, computer science programming, food production, and junior ROTC.
Around 15 students spoke during the presentation, highlighting their own areas of study.
Kimberly Deangelis, the junior adviser of the school’s chapter of the National FFA Organization, is part of the Animal Systems program at Lake Hamilton.
“Being a very active member of the FFA and also FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) has brought me to the attention that I do have the courage to pursue a career in veterinary (medicine),” she said.
“I would like to be a livestock veterinarian, and the courage that has been brought to me from being able to step out of my box, the leadership skills I have gained, and also the competence that I have has brought me to step up here today and talk to you all, I’m able to use these to gain experiences for my future. I have started showing livestock this year in FFA, and the passion of livestock has brought me to want to start my own Boer goat business.”
Abbygail Fowler, a senior in the Audio/Video Tech and Film program and vice president of the school’s SkillsUSA Career and Technical Student Organization, said she and the other 96 students in the program gain valuable experience.
“We get hands-on experiences through the three courses in this pathway,” she said. “We have a regular classroom that we spend a lot of time in, but we also have our control room in our 2,200-seat live event venue right here in the arena, right outside. This is where we apply our skills and knowledge into real workplace situations every week.”
Kiah Heard, a senior, discussed the construction technology program and the certifications students in the program can get, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Center for Construction Education and Research certifications.
“This year, we already have 125 students that have their OSHA 10 certification,” he said. “SkillsUSA has been more active this year and has currently 56 members from all three programs. In the fall we attended the SkillsUSA leadership training and are currently preparing to compete in the upcoming state competition.
“The construction technology classes don’t feel like a class; they feel more like an apprenticeship — lots of oneon-one involvement. We apply real-world skills,” Heard said.
Following the presentations, attendees were divided into groups to tour the different facilities on campus where the students put their skills to the test. Areas visited included a wood construction shop, junior ROTC training area, a dog grooming area, a greenhouse, sports medicine area and an audio/video control room.