FFA State Officers Visit New Commercial Facility
The FFA State Officers recently had the opportunity to visit Lëf Farms, a new 75,000 square foot, multi-million dollar production facility in Loudon. The operation, owned by Pleasant View Gardens, is expected to hydroponically produce 1.3 million pounds of fresh greens each year. With their state-of-the-art computerized system, harvest to table time is 24 hours. The State Officers were able to chat with Henry Huntington, co-owner, about the bright future for this commercial agriculture venture.
New chapter marks unprecedented collaboration for NCDA
At the end of June, the National Career Development Association (NCDA) announced the formation of the Vermont/New Hampshire Career Development Association (VT/NH CDA).
According to Doug Cullen, who was voted founding president of the chapter by NCDA membership, it is the first time two states have ever collaborated within one chapter.
“There was actually a by-law change voted in by members at this year’s national convention in Chicago to even allow such a non-profit creation to occur,” he noted. “We are literally making history in its creation.”
NCDA Executive Director Deneen Pennington referred to the new chapter as “an important addition to NCDA’s state presence and voice in the New England area.”
“State divisions deliver significant services to the membership, help identify the leadership of the future, and provide essential feedback to NCDA,” Pennington noted. “This vibrant new division will help to establish and improve the standards for professional service in the field of career development in those respective states.”
VT/NH CDA liaison to NCDA, NCDA Trustee Wendy LaBenne said the new state division will provide career practitioners with meaningful opportunities to connect with others in the field and hold professional development events at a state level.
“The state division will also provide a platform for those interested in building leadership skills an avenue at the state level,” she said. “We look for all state divisions to promote career development in their state as well as provide leaders for consideration at the national level.”
Citing his belief that VT/NH CDA will help to endorse “the incorporation of theory and effective practice models into career development services” across both states, Cullen said his vision also includes greater bridge-building efforts between Canada and international NCDA affiliates.
“Given declining populations in both states, understanding best practices involving people from different cultures may assist career development practitioners working with a potential increase in students and clients coming to northern New England or being intentionally recruited by Vermont and New Hampshire industries from different nations,” he said.
As an initial step for the new chapter, Cullen expressed enthusiasm for its first official Chapter Networking Session as part of the Tri-State CTE Director’s Conference on July 29 in Burlington, VT. At the conference, Dick Knowdell, well known for his work with the Career Values Card Sort, Motivated Skills Card Sort, Occupational Interest Card Sort and the Leisure/Retirement Activities Card Sort that began in 1977, will speak about recent changes in the Career Development industry.
“It will provide new and existing practitioners with a perspective on how their jobs and the students/clients they support have changed and potentially how to adapt to those changes to be most effective,” he said.
According to Cullen, though, the formation of the VT/NH CDA is just one of many “exciting developments” in the industry that he feels could benefit CTE participants in the long term. One such development relates to a formal partnership between NCDA and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).
“I feel ACTE alignment may enable greater CTE association involvement by CTE faculty/staff looking for more national and international exposure/best practices,” he said. “It may provide the most engaged CTE staff with a greater opportunity to interact with a broader and deeper set of CTE professionals as well as broadening and deepening the depth of CTE curriculum and student experiences in New Hampshire.”
Pennington also express optimism at the partnership, as she said both organizations serve “separate, yet overlapping constituencies with a similar focus related to career development priorities and support of practitioners in the field.”
“This partnership provides the basis for a formal collaboration between the two organizations that is be mutually beneficial,” she added. “Benefits include membership collaboration, professional development opportunities, and joint marketing efforts. The benefits to the local CTE stakeholders include access to all NCDA research, advocacy, professional development, and career resources at reduced membership rates.”
For more information about VT/NH CDA or the upcoming Tri-State Conference, visit www.vtnh-cda.org. To learn more about the NCDA, visit https://ncda.org.
This is the first part of a three-story series where we look at the recent formation of a new chapter of the National Career Development Association and related issues.
Staying ‘nimble’ the key to CTE programming
Offered since the 1970’s, CTE programs at the Career Technical Education Center at Portsmouth High School are thriving, according to Career Technical Education Director Diane Canada. Averaging approximately 200 students annually, Portsmouth will offer seven programs in school year 2016-17, which include: Education & Teacher Training, Entrepreneurship, Culinary Arts, Construction Trades, Architecture & Engineering Design, Welding Technology and Automotive Technology.
Down one program from last year, Portsmouth will no longer offer Hospitality Management, however, as leadership elected to close it with enrollment numbers less than sufficient to justify its continuance. In the program, students spent one class period each week learning the different areas of hotel operations at the Sheraton Portsmouth Hotel. Such a closure, though, is not a negative development, but rather the result of the generally “nimble” nature of CTE programming itself.
“In the ten years I have been director, I have had to make changes to programming to meet the needs of the community and the interests of the students,” said Canada. “I have closed programs, cut them to half time, and put some on hold to determine whether to rebuild or close. I have increased programs and added new ones as well. I am continually shifting to keep our programming relevant to our students.”
As for what influences enrollment numbers for any particular program, she cited many factors, including economics, demographics, and perceptions regarding up and coming careers.
“Portsmouth is an affluent community where the vast majority of our students go on to four-year colleges,” she added.
Looking ahead
In looking to the next academic school year, Canada expressed enthusiasm regarding the direction of their CTE programs, including Entrepreneurship, which was just granted two-year approval from the NHDOE Career Development Bureau.
“I have two teachers for this one program and all classes are filled,” she said. “These students compete in the UNH BizGen competition as well as in their own in-house business plan competition that is fully supported by the Seacoast Rotary Club.”
Education & Teacher Training is another program that tends to attract many students, who become extremely active in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, a nonprofit national career and technical student organization program. Canada said these same students also intend to become quite active in Educators Rising, which provides young people with hands-on teaching experience, and help them develop the skills needed to become successful educators.
“Culinary Arts is also very popular in this restaurant town,” she said. “Our students compete very successfully at state and national levels. One student just returned from his second national competition in SkillsUSA.
In addition to expanding the footprint of current CTE programming, Canada said they are considering two new program areas.
“We are working very closely with Great Bay Community College to bring about a Computer Science Pathway,” she said. “This coming year, we will offer two courses that will be taught by GBCC faculty here in the high school as well as two courses offered in our blended learning lab through eStart. I am also partnering with a local nursing home, the Edgewood Centre, to offer an LNA Certification class. I am hoping to eventually offer more healthcare courses…This is an exciting time for our program and CTE statewide.”
Plymouth Applied Technology Center
Location: Plymouth, NH
Director: Randy Cleary
Website: www.PRHS.sau48.org
Cheshire Career Center
Location: Keene, NH
Director: Lisa Danley
Website: www.CheshireCareerCenter.org
Dover Career Technical Center
Location: Dover, NH
Director: Louise Paradis
Website: www.CTC.Dover.k12.nh.us
Students Think Outside the Box at BizGen
Organized by BizGen, whose mission “is to light the spark in the next generation of business developers,” BizGen is a business competition hosted at UNH designed to inspire students to think like an entrepreneur.
Noting it is still in its infancy stage as a competition, Tiffany D’Amour, Business Educator at Portsmouth High School, referred to this year’s BizGen as “stellar.” “Judges were critical and treated the students as if they were true entrepreneurs,” she said. “These judges were comprised of business professionals and angel investors, who are similar to venture capitalists.”
At this year’s competition in late May, Portsmouth High School teams placed 3rd and 4th with prize money for the students of $1,000 and $500 in total, respectively. Awards were provided to the top 4 business ventures out of 18 teams who entered.
D’Amour praised both teams for their hard work, which began with creating and submitting a 1-page abstract that highlighted their business idea, critical areas needed for success, and the target market. The teams then wrote a 10-page business outline and provided a business presentation pitch to a panel of judges.
The 3rd place team, BookBit, was a business venture whose goal was to capture 65% of college students who do not purchase college textbooks. BookBit provided a digital textbook where students could purchase pages of a textbook versus having to make a large upfront payment for the entire textbook.
The 4th place team, Just in Case, was a business venture based on improving the response time of local police to sexual assault or domestic abuse victims. The company offered a cell phone case where the user could slide and click on a button on the side of the cell phone case that immediately configured his/her GPS location and then directly connect with local law enforcement.
05262016_BizGen_2016
“There is no prototype as of right now for either business, but the students learn the entrepreneurial process with this idea,” D’Amour said.
In Portsmouth, she said BizGen has also garnered interest from outside the Business CTE program.
“For the last 2 years, there has been a team that competed and they were hockey players who met before practice to compete,” she added.
Aside from the value of the experience in the competition itself, D’Amour said she believes students gain skills for the long, term, too. “They learn confidence, speaking skills, thinking on their feet, how to keep calm in a high pressure environment and how to network—all critical skills in the business world and life,” she said.
Katie Auger, who was on the 4th place winner and plans to attend UNH Paul College in the fall, said her BizGen experience was unique, as it helped her “learn about myself and discover another part of the business world.”
“It pushes students to discover interests and talents they never knew they had as well as test their creativity,” she said. “It was an incredible event that challenges students to think outside the box.”
D’Amour also expressed enthusiasm regarding the future of BizGen.
“Ken Johnson, one of the founders, works at F.I.R.S.T, which is a robotics STEM company and he believes in the hands-on approach of teaching and inspiring students to be creative in the classroom,” she said. “It is a local competition with a goal to expand nationally.
To learn more about BizGen as an organization and its various initiatives, visit Biz-Gen.org.
Hospitality Students Learn New Skills in New Orleans
Seven students from the Great Bay Community College Hospitality Club recently returned from New Orleans where they spent time with students and staff at Café Reconcile, a nonprofit restaurant and event center that helps at risk youth.
Open for business since 2000, Café Reconcile teaches life skills to young people (ages 16 t0 22) from severely at risk communities through a job training program in the hospitality industry. Proceeds from events held at the cafe go directly towards funding the facility, equipment, staffing and food making the venue free for any at risk youth who participates.
Participating student and Club President Kait Short said the trip to New Orleans provided her and other students with a unique opportunity.
“Especially in light of current events, the opportunity we had to exchange stories and experiences with Café Reconcile’s students and staff also helped us feel connected to otherwise distant issues,” she said. “The way that they are working to overcome such adversity is incredibly inspiring, and we took that determination and desire for change back to NH with us.”
Describing the trip as “funfilled and busy” ferry rides on the Mississippi River, long strolls on Bourbon Street and a muddy side trip to Jazzfest, Club Secretary Laura Johnson echoed Short’s sentiments. “The highlight of the trip by far was meeting the students and staff at Café Reconcile,” she said.
The experience also provided students with a real world experience with practical benefits. Club Treasurer Katti Mowers said she learned a lot planning the trip, as she noted she worked with a limited budget and overcame challenging logistics. “This was a great learning experience, because I was able to hurdle all of the obstacle, as I would need to in my future as an event planner,” she added.
Short agreed and added, “The process of organizing the trip to New Orleans gave me a unique learning experience that I can apply in my future career as an event coordinator of community or corporate events.”
In reflecting on her two years in the Hospitality Management program itself, Short said it has helped to open doors she does not think would have been possible at a four-year university.
“As a 25 year old student working fulltime, I need a flexible schedule,” she said. “Great Bay has allowed me to earn my degree and real-life industry experience without putting my life on hold.”
Dawn Comito, Great Bay’s Hospitality Management Department Chair and Club Advisor, applauded club members, who volunteered more than 700 hours in the community over an entire year, including assisting the United Way and Strawbery Banke, to fund the trip. In previous years, they have attended professional conferences in Miami, Chicago and Las Vegas.
“In addition to fundraising, the trip would not have been possible however without the many hospitality business and education partners who acted as sponsors, including Portsmouth Brewery, Atlantic Hospitality Group and The Portsmouth Spa,” she said. “The students are very grateful.”
Participating students included Kait Short, Dover; Laura Johnson, Derry; Jessie LaFleur, Candia; Matt Joyal, Farmington; Amanda Doyle, Barrington; Michelle Zannini, Berwick, Maine; and Katti Mowers, Epping.
About the Hospitality Management Program
Great Bay Community College currently offers an Associate in Science Degree in Hospitality Management offering students two concentration options to choose from. The Hospitality Management – Direct Career option is recommended for students who plan to begin their career immediately after graduation from Great Bay. The Hospitality Management University Transfer option, developed in consultation with the Hospitality Management Department at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, is specifically designed to prepare students for transfer to a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management at a four-year college or university.
Student Success at Huot Career and Technical Center
This past June, thousands of New Hampshire students walked across the stage to receive their high school diploma, which included 150 graduating seniors who attended J. Oliva Huot Career and Technical Center for two years. While the Huot Center does not technically hand out diplomas, the center does take great pride in the graduation plans of its seniors.
“Students in New Hampshire’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) centers are leaving high school more prepared for both college and their future careers,” said Huot Director Dave Warrender. The Huot Center, located in Laconia, is one of over twenty CTE centers operating in the state that offer cutting edge training to high school students.
One method for improving a student’s post-secondary options is the awarding of post-secondary credit while still in high school. The Huot Center currently has dual-enrollment and articulation agreements with several schools, including New England College, Plymouth State University and Central Maine Community College. The center’s largest partnership, however, is with the Community College System of New Hampshire through Project Running Start, which has enabled students to earn hundreds of transferable credits from schools within the CCSNH system.
In 2015, 74 Huot students will enter post-secondary education, 43 of whom will work and attend school at the same time. All together, the Huot class of 2015 earned 221 college credits through the Running Start program at Lakes Region Community College, which saved their families $41,000 in tuition. This year’s Huot graduates also included thirty-eight students secured full- time employment.
Career and Technical Centers Redefined
According to Warrender, CTE Centers have gone through a significant transformation over the past thirty years. “In the 70’s and 80’s, CTE Centers were often defined by ‘who’ they taught,” he said. “The ‘voc’ was thought of as a place for kids who didn’t fit in an academic setting and were not worried about getting ready for college.”
During the computer revolution of the early 90’s, however, he said the vocational center transitioned into the technical center.
“Our focused shifted from who we taught to what we taught,” Warrender added. “Technical centers became the places where students explored programs too specific or too expensive to be replicated at every high school, while schools realized there was a cost-savings to running technology heavy courses in one centralized region.”
Through a consistent focus on technology, job readiness and applied learning, he said CTE Centers developed unique ways of teaching students in full recognition that a high school diploma was not enough for many high tech careers. Today, he said CTE Centers are now defined neither by what or whom they teach, but rather by how they teach.
“CTE centers in our state do a fantastic job of blending applied technical learning with soft skill development and college readiness standards,” he noted. “Students are expected to leave not only ready to get an entry level job, but to also pursue post-secondary education.”
From the Students
When asked how the Huot helped them to become college-and-career ready, students replied with a variety of answers. “The Huot helps you achieve so much more than you would ever imagine,” said Bridgette Robichaud of Franklin, an Allied Health student, who has enrolled in the Dental Assistant Program at New Hampshire Technical Institute.
“My teachers taught me new skills and I reached many great accomplishments,” added Liam Gove, who entered the automotive program from Winnisquam Regional High School and secured a position as a boat technician at Winnisquam Marina. “More importantly, the class taught me how to cope with failure.”
Gove’s sentiments were echoed by Joe Judkins, another Winnisquam student that attended the Building Construction program and one of 10 who has opted to pursue a career in the armed services. “The Building Class taught me many professional and personal skills—this built my self-confidence and ability to decide to join the military,” he said.
For five years running, the Huot Center has achieved a 100% pass-rate on the state exam for Licensed Nurse Assistants. One of this year’s candidates, Nicole Rosas of Belmont, could not be more pleased with her experience. “The program and my required 60 plus clinical hours helped me decide what I wanted to do after graduation,” she said. “My teachers gave me great support and were always encouraging.” Nicole is enrolled in Arizona State University’s Nursing Program and plans on working as a Licensed Nursing Assistant while attending school.
The ability to earn college credits has also been an important consideration for students, as is evidenced by Mikayla Bordeau from the Huot’s Careers in Education program. She earned 14 college credits while in high school, including 11 from her class the at career center. She also secured a position with Lakes Region Child Care Services, Inc. and has enrolled in the Elementary Education program at Plymouth State University.
While the majority of Huot students transition directly into a related field, Dacey Lecuyer, a Culinary Arts student, is taking the teamwork and customer service skills she learned in a different direction. “The program has taught me self-discipline and gave me confidence to be prepared for cosmetology school,” said Lecuyer, who has enrolled at Empire Beauty School in Laconia.
Striving for Real World Standards
At the start of the year assembly, Warrender will pose the students with a few simple questions: Who wants to eat chicken cooked by a C- chef? Who wants to bring their car to the mechanic who puts on 70% of their lug-nuts or go to the nurse who gives you the right medication 7 times out of 10?
“At the Huot—like at all CTE centers—students are taught to keep doing a task until they can do it right,” said Warrender. “The experience of performing a task for an actual customer in many cases carries a weight that engages students and pushes them to not just ‘pass a class,’ but truly strive for excellence.”
He said students who work hard, master skills and go above and beyond earn a reward beyond a grade or credit. “They earn the recommendation of their CTE teacher, a person who has real-world experience working in the career path to which these students aspire,” he added. “This is the key ingredient that helped so many of our graduates land jobs this year.”
There is not just one kind of student that has come to value career and technical education, either, as Warrender said many of the school’s top academic student take CTE classes. During the 2014-2015 school year, the Huot Center inducted 27 students into their local chapter of National Technical Honor Society and handed out a record number of academic and career scholarships to their graduating seniors.
“This year, four of Laconia High Schools top ten students had taken courses at the Huot Center, including both the class salutatorian and valedictorian,” he said. “Huot students are also eligible to earn both honors credit and NH Scholars Recognition for many of their career center course.”
As for the Huot’s Center future, Warrender said it looks bright, while citing an anticipated overall enrollment of about 460-470 students in the fall. “We are seeing a real increase in both student, community and business interest not just here but across the state,” he said. “I think everyone recognizes the time for Career and Technical Education is now.”