April 2021 • Volume 1 • Issue 8
Dr. Sharon L. Contreras, Superintendent
THE CTE "WHY?"
Career and Technical Education (CTE) prepares all students for high-skill, high-wage or in-demand careers. The experience begins with career inspiration in Pre-K, awareness in elementary school, exploration in middle school, and preparation in high school. CTE equips students for post-secondary education and immediate employment opportunities to compete worldwide successfully.
GCS CTE offers over 100 industry-recognized credentials aligned to in-demand pathways and designed to provide students with validation of the technical and academic skills acquired during their program of study. Earning industry-recognized credentials is part of The CTE Experience and demonstrates to employers the knowledge and abilities of future employees.
After our "Credential Blitz," the highest number of certifications earned is in the Health Science Career Cluster with 89 OSHA 10-Hour Healthcare Industry certifications. The OSHA 10-Hour training course provides training for entry-level workers on the recognition, avoidance, abatement, and prevention of safety and health hazards in workplaces in the healthcare industry. Rounding out the top five credentials earned in 2020-2021 are First Aid, Stop the Bleed, Safety and Pollution Prevention (S/P2), Mechanical Safety, and S/P2 Mechanical Pollution Prevention.
• FEATURE ARTICLES •
Signature Career Academies in Guilford County Schools Renovated
Cutting-Edge & Leading Innovation!
Click the video to watch below.
2021 ApprenticeshipNC Outstanding High School Apprentice Award Winner: Perry Sharpe
Congratulations to Perry Sharpe, a senior at Eastern Guilford High School, who is the 2021 ApprenticeshipNC Outstanding High School Apprentice Award winner!
He was nominated by his employer, The City of High Point, for his outstanding work as a first-year apprentice through his enrollment in the Guilford Apprenticeship Partners (GAP). Through the GAP program, Mr. Sharpe is able to participate in typical high school learning, extracurricular activities (such as wrestling) while also earning a steady paycheck and gaining invaluable career experiences and connections. He currently works for the City of High Point's Fleet Services Department, repairing and maintaining diesel engines and equipment. Mr. Sharpe will attend Guilford Technical Community College in the Fall and hopes to graduate in 2024 with an Associate degree in Diesel and Heavy Equipment Technology. The GCS CTE family is incredibly proud of Perry Sharpe and the recognition for his outstanding work! To learn more about Perry Sharpe and his experience as a GAP apprentice, click here!
The Guilford County Schools CTE Department is partnering with Builders Bridge, a nonprofit organization created by True Homes. Their mission is to bridge the gap between the opportunities within the home building industry and our communities' needs by partnering with local school systems to provide access to the housing industry via summer internships for young people ages 16-23. Builders Bridge is a successful venture within the Charlotte area and is branching out to replicate that same success within the Triad area. Their host of 23 community partners, 22 trade partners, and access to hands-on experience and training across 12 unique trades within the housing industry allows them to create impactful opportunities that translate into lucrative careers for students.
The partnership between GCS CTE and Builders Bridge will offer paid internships to students 16 years old and older and industry access to field trips and other learning experiences once health metrics permit. GCS CTE students will earn between $10-15/hour during the eight-week Builders Bridge Summer Internship making this a valuable investment of their time. A Builders Bridge Intern Coordinator will also provide students with support and soft skills, training in budgeting, communication/conflict, interviewing/networking, and goal setting.
GCS CTE students, teachers, and Career and College Managers (CCMs) make the difference in encouraging and assisting interested students in applying by Friday, April 30, 2021, for the Builders Bridge Summer Internship.
Coming Soon!
2021 CTE Senior Recognition Ceremony
The first district-wide livestream of the CTE Virtual Recognition Ceremony for the Class of 2021 will air the week of May 17 and be posted on social media channels. CTE Senior Recognition Ceremony for the Class of 2021 recognizes students who have completed a career pathway and earned industry-recognized credentials! We will also recognize those students who have earned credentials and are dual-enrolled in college courses through the Career and College Program (CCP), and students who are in school-to-work placement as "Distinguished Pathway Completers." These distinguished seniors will also be entered into a raffle to receive cash, technology, professional or recreational prizes.
Special guests at this ceremony will include videos snippets from local and state leaders in government, education, and industry. CTE prepares all students for high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand choices for careers, not just graduation!
New Life at Southern Guilford High School's Animal Science Pathway!
Mrs. Hailey Peeler, the CTE Animal Science Pathway teacher and one of the FFA advisors at Southern Guilford High School (SGHS), is happy to announce the birth of 4 goats (kids) this week! Both does (female goats) gave birth within two weeks of each other, and both had one male and one female. The females and new “kids” on the block are all doing well! The students in the Animal Science Pathway at SGHS learn first-hand how to assess the health and development of the various animals, place ear tags, administer correct medications and much more. The Animal Science Pathway students have also been tending to freshly hatched chicks, learning how to care for and manage chickens and goats of all ages. The CTE students at SGHS were excited to return to school after Spring Break to welcome the latest additions. Spring has sprung! Below is the CTE Pathway Sequence for the Animal Science Pathway at SGHS.
Education Farm (EdFarm) has partnered with the GCS CTE Department as a recipient of the Coding and Mobile Applications Development Grant to execute the commitment of providing innovative professional development for teachers along with real-world student work-based experiences. As a part of this partnership, teachers will engage in professional development with EdFarm as Teacher Fellows. EdFarm will equip Teacher Fellows with innovative resources and teaching strategies that support active learning and provide collaborative learning and experiences amongst the cohort (EdFarm.org). Additionally, the execution of this initiative will include an alliance with NC A&T State University to provide professional development for teachers and workshops and Cybersecurity and Coding Club opportunities for high school students.
EdFarm will allow us to build teachers and leaders as a future-focused Code, Create, Cultivate Change = Community:
• Builds Core & CTE Teacher Capacity and Collaboration through Teacher fellow • Builds Principal Capacity through Leadership Coaching • Develops School-wide Coding Across the Curriculum Professional Development • Enables the Attainment of Apple Certifications • Provides Cutting-Edge Coding Clubs • Inspiring Confidence While Problem-solving • Immerses Apple partners, competitions, devices, and coding software • Leverages Potential Opportunities through the Propel Center (https://propelcenter.org/#)
Coding across the curriculum as an integration versus a separate learning experience exposes our students to Coding as a form of communication (a language); we can call it Literacy+ :
• Students develop structured and creative thinking skills. • Students gradually program their brains to break every problem down to bits and understand better. • Students learning how to code, and embrace difficult situations trying to solve problems and make predictions. • Students become persistent because they know there is always a solution. • Students, teachers, and leaders understand that Coding is a learning-skill, career-skill, and life-skill.
Cybersecurity & Data Analytics Summer Camp: Hosted by a GCS Student
Roma Desai is a sophomore at Early College at Guilford College who has a "keen interest in STEM and spreading awareness" about emerging fields such as cybersecurity and data analytics." She is part of the FTC Robotics Team and hosts a Data Analytics and Cybersecurity Club. Miss Desai believes that the need to understand cybersecurity is growing in importance, referencing the 2016 election, a recent hacking of the vaccine database, and several international security breaches in the news. Roma believes, "In order to protect our nation and protect our personal information, it's vital to bring awareness about cybersecurity."
In doing so, Roma wishes to bring a unifying and collective perspective to the relevance of data analytics and cybersecurity to all of our lives, "You have all this data, but you need to be able to secure it. You have personal information like your birthdate on Facebook or your Social Security number... those are things that you would not want breached as an individual." As a grant recipient from the National Center for Women, Roma is also aware of the underrepresentation of women in the cybersecurity and data analytics sector and looks to use her grant money to teach girls, ages 9-13, about HTML programming and the development of their soft skills.
Roma credits various STEM-related encounters throughout her educational journey within Guilford County Schools as attributing to her interest in cybersecurity and data analytics. Roma and her classmates, who are a part of the ECG Data Analytics and Cybersecurity (DACS) Club, invite all GCS students in grades 3-8 to a virtual Summer Camp. The "Dive Into Data" Summer Camp will introduce students to data analysis, programming, and data visualization through exciting and interactive sessions. "Dive Into Data" will be held from June 28-July 2, 2021, from 9 am-12 pm. Register by clicking below. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ECG Data Analytics and Cybersecurity (DACS) Club at dacsclub.ecg@gmail.com.
•CTE TEACHER SPOTLIGHT•
Lohanna Sanchez Puts her $5000 Truliant Financial Education Grant to Work!
Mrs. Lohanna Sanchez, a CTE teacher at Northwest Guilford Middle School, was recently awarded a $5,000.00 financial education grant from Truliant Federal Credit Union for her Classroom Economy Project. She will use Paygrade.io as an extension to her student's learning Financial Literacy and the Economy in the classroom. This experiential opportunity will help them learn about personal finance, budgeting, investing, and online banking tools while reinforcing positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) and teaching essential life skills. Students can earn class dollars and build wealth (Salary, bonuses, economic stimulus, enterprise, investments) and spend class dollars (Bills, rent, auction items, market, fines, fraud) in a fun and engaging way. By purchasing licenses to use the Paygrade.io cloud software, Mrs. Sanchez can teach both the impact of computing and the relationship to their future financial lives all at once!
Career & Technical Student Organizations
HOSA - Future Health Professionals, formally know as Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), is a Career and Technical Student Organization for middle school, secondary, and post-secondary students interested in preparing to enter the healthcare field. HOSA Chapters from Southwest Guilford High School and The Early College at Guilford (ECG) competed in the Virtual State Leadership Conference April 7-10, 2021, with great success! Students placing third or higher will be eligible to compete in the Virtual HOSA Future Health Professionals International Leadership Conference June 23-26, 2021.
Congratulations to Southwest's Chapter for receiving the Gold Star Chapter Award and to Advisors Nita Canon and Kristen Dusek for receiving the HOSA Advisor Award.
• business spotlight •
Apple Picks Triangle for $1 Billion Campus
The students at the Signature Career Academy of Computer and Information Sciences at Kearns Academy and Northeast Guilford High School will be positioned to step into career opportunities with Apple based on the recent announcement of a new campus and engineering hub in Raleigh, NC. The focus areas will include machine language, artificial intelligence, and software engineering and the average minimum salary will be $187,000 within five years of opening. For more information about the Apple expansion, click here.
A Look Ahead...
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month and the CTE Departments joins in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have greatly enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success. For more information and resources regarding Asian Pacific American Heritage Month please click here to visit the United States Library of Congress.
GCS CTE STAFF
Dr. Eboni Camille Chillis • Interim Chief Innovation Officer & CTE Executive Director
Nancy Cross • GCS CTE Director
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