Marshall County Students Learn About Career-Technical Programs Offered at High Schools
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GLEN DALE - Marshall County Schools' middle schoolers and incoming freshmen got the chance to try out a variety of career technical educational programs Monday at John Marshall High School.
The programs include agriculture, automotive technology, broadcasting, business, culinary arts, drafting, firefighter/EMT, information technology/Project Lead the Way, computer science, Project Lead The Way Engineering, therapeutic services, welding and woodworking.
The goal of the fourth-annual CTE Summer Camp is to give students a hands-on look at the programs so they can decide what classes they might want to take before they enter their freshman year at JMHS or Cameron High School.
About 180 students participated with morning and afternoon sessions taking place.
JM Senior Billy Woods was one of the upperclassmen showing the younger students how the machine shop works.
"We get to show them all of our machines running; our lathes, our mills, our CNCs, our laser. We pretty much have everything a machine shop would have," Woods said. "You'll learn more precision in this class than anything else."
Woods said he enjoys the class because of the state of the art machinery he gets to use.
"This is the best program in the state," he said. "You can't get this experience unless you go out to that job. It's the best program in the school."
Machine-Tool Technology instructor Terry Whitlatch said the machine shop program is popular at the school.
"They like it. Once they walk through that door, you can't get rid of them," Whitlatch said. "They want down here at lunch. They want down here at free periods. They're asking their teachers if they're done with their work, can they come down to the shop."
Whitlatch said the program stresses safety and also requires learning and using good math skills.
"I tell them you get out of this what you put into it," he said, noting some graduates are now working professional machine shop jobs.
CTE Program Director Bob Wilson said welding and nursing are two of the most sought-after programs.
"I think it's super important for kids this age to see what we have to offer at the high school level," Wilson said. "They get to do some hands-on learning, which is fantastic. They get to meet kids from other schools, which is also awesome. And it gives them an opportunity to try different things in different years."
He noted students are taken into the programs on a first-come, first-serve basis, so it is good for them to sign up quickly when the time comes.
After graduation, Wilson said the school's placement rate into CTE fields is 92%.
"If kids want to get a job in an industry right out of high school, they're pretty much able to without a problem," he said.
Wilson added that Sherrard Middle School's robotics and coding program was also participating on Monday.