Students from a variety of area schools got a chance to try a variety of technical skills Thursday, May 8, as Sweet Home High School hosted a “Unified CTE Day” focusing on career and technical education.
The idea, said Robin Lindsey, the school district’s transition specialist who focuses on education for special education students, was to give those students a chance to try skills such as welding, forestry, woodworking, agriculture and graphic design that they might not otherwise be exposed to in school.
“It was exciting,” Lindsey said. “The kids from the other schools were really excited.”
Students came from Alsea, Central Linn, Harrisburg, Newport and South Albany high schools, as well as from Sweet Home Junior High, she said.
Pole climbing proved to be a big hit, Lindsey said, as was welding.
“(Metals instructor) Austin Hart hit it out of the park,” she said. Sweet Home welding students helped visitors weld hanging basket holders and sunflowers, which they could take home.
Agricultural sciences teacher Scott Jacobson and his FFA students had farm animals on hand to meet the visitors and helped them plant hanging flower baskets that they got to take home.
Visitors got to watch woodworking students operate the machinery in the woodshop and put together birdhouses, and they tried screen-printing a T-shirt in Ammon Mills’ computer classroom.
Lindsey said CTE teachers are already talking about what they could do next year.
District Supt. Terry Martin, who cooked hot dogs for lunch for the visitors, was enthusiastic about the event, calling it “absolutely amazing.”
“It makes me so proud to be a superintendent to such incredible and hardworking employees,” he said. “One student from Newport said something along the lines at lunch that he has always wanted to try welding, and now that he has, he knows what he wants to do with his life now. Talk about bringing tears to your eyes.”
Brian Brands, the district’s Student Services director, said he heard from “almost every adult coming through the hot dog line” “how great the day was.”
“I can tell you from the conversations I have had with other district administrators that the Sweet Home CTE program is seen as exemplary in the state,” Brands said after the event.
Student Jesse Johnson of Alsea was stoked about axe-throwing after trying that at the forestry facility.
“This is the most fun I’ve ever had,” he announced as his turn ended.
