Palestine High School showcases Career, Technical programs
The Palestine Independent School District hosted its third Career and Technical Education Showcase on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
'Everyone that is a vendor is either a college, trade school or a local business partner for one of our CTE programs of study,' said Brian Howie, assistant superintendent. 'So, Sanderson Farms, they are here because they work with our Ag program showing our kids how to process chicken, and they do some stuff on the Ag mechanic side as well.'
Howie said the event is not a career fair, or a job fair, but more of what Palestine's CTE programs offer and how that correlates into the real world.
'After they leave our showcase, we want them to have questions so we can guide them to the classes they need to take,' Howie said.
This year, there were 33 varied booths for students in grades sixth through 12th to visit and learn what is available for their educational and professional futures. Students actively asked questions about the classes offered and what they would get to do in those classes.
Howie said this year there was a new element to the event.
'This year our Special Education Department at Palestine, we've got speech, occupational therapy, diagnosticians here, kids have never heard of that,' he said. 'We wanted to show them within education there is more than just teaching or being a principal. There are specializations.'
Touring through the event, PISD Superintendent Jason Marshall said he thinks career and technology is 'great for kids.'
'A lot of kids, who are high school age kids, are not going to pursue college, but even those who are going to pursue college can learn a skill in high school and help pay their way through college,' Marshall said. 'It's really great, under Mr. Howie's direction, that we've extended this down to the younger levels where kids can learn about career fields before they get to high school. When students get to high school, they still have enough flexibility in their schedule that they can participate in at least two career fields in high school and still come out with some type of certification.'
Marshall said it was 'awesome' to see high school students currently in CTE programs at the event discussing those fields with other students.
Senior Tre'Darius Shepard said being one of the student participants in the CTE Showcase allowed him to share information about the various programs offered at Palestine High School.
'It is a really good opportunity showing the younger kids in our district what they can do when they get in high school,' Shepard said. 'I have visited some of the booths and they are really awesome. They are able to show us what Palestine or our district has to offer. It is so incredible and you don't know they exist until you come out from our community and they show us what they do.
'I want to thank Palestine High School and our director of the CTE program,' he said. 'I want to thank the teachers for making it better and they are doing so great at it and showing us what they offer as a district.'
Some of the booths were interactive as well. Those visiting the agriculture booth got to hold newborn chicks, those who stopped by the welding class booth were able to tryout the welding simulator, cosmetology students styled visiting students' hair at their booth and the EMT/fire booth was demonstrating how they load a person on a gurney.
Booths from the Palestine High School's CTE program included:
• Cosmetology
• Agriculture
• Architecture and construction
• Arts, A/V technology and communications
• Business
• Education
• Health science
There were also local businesses set up to show how they correlate with classes offered at PISD through the CTE program. Participating businesses included Wayne Sanderson Farms, Walmart and the Palestine Herald-Press.
'At our booth we have live chicks from our hatchery that just hatched this morning,' said Cara Patterson, a retention associate with Sanderson Farms. 'And we are explaining the process of everything to the students who come by our booth.'
Patterson said she enjoyed the reactions of the students as they showed them the 'cute little chickens' and then 'telling them this is something they will wind up eating.'
'Most of them are shocked by it,' she said.
Patterson said many people don't realize the Palestine processing plant for Sanderson Farms provides poultry to many local restaurants and stores.
'A lot of them are like, 'Oh, that's what the little label on there is.' Yeah, that comes from us,' she said. 'We hand process a lot of our birds. That is what we are doing here today, sharing about that process to students.'
For the seniors, the CTE Showcase featured area colleges, including Trinity Valley Community College and the military, including Navy, Marine and Army recruiters.
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