The Summer Career Experience was open to all students finishing the eighth grade from Bethel-Tate, Felicity-Franklin, New Richmond, and Williamsburg school districts.
Students arrived early and were ready to head out into the shops and labs where teachers had great activities lined up for the students.
The first session in the Medical/Professional Cluster saw students practicing simulations and practicing anatomy skills in Medical Information Tech or gowning up with personal protection garb to dress wounds in the Allied Health Science Lab.
In the Service Cluster, students began in Horticulture creating flower arrangements, hanging baskets, and outdoor flower pots.
Current Horticulture students demonstrated their skills in many areas and answered questions from the students.
In the Construction Cluster, the students began in the Engineering Design lab, where they completed lots of design work in CAD as they created parts for their wind chime project.
Following a delicious lunch, students headed off to a new venue for Session II. The Medical/Professional Cluster split up again and visited the Teacher Academy for learning styles and games and activities. The other half went back to Allied Health Science to learn how to suture deep cuts. It was amazing to see them sew wounds.
The Construction group headed to Carpentry where they used their blueprints from Engineering to create great toolboxes to carry the parts of their wind chime project.
The group separated into smaller groups to build a two story structure or begin the painting on their wind chime project. The Service Cluster moved on to Cosmetology where they gave and received great natural facials with yogurt, mashed strawberries, and bananas while using delightful massage techniques.
Their skin glowed and they headed home feeling very relaxed from their pampering session. Everyone left for the day eager to see what the next day would bring.
Day Two of the Summer Career Experience had the students arriving early and ready to tackle the projects they had started.
The Medical/ Professional group was excited, or not, to be dissecting sheep brains! Mixed reviews from the group on the “icky” factor but some couldn’t stop talking about the cool brains. They also completed their board game or bulletin board and played with the parachute in team building activities.
The Construction group learned the basics of welding from Mr. Fire (Doug Ayers) and worked on their musical chimes. The tinkling of the pipes could be heard all around the facility! The Service group hit the kitchen running and learned basic knife skills before beginning the slicing, dicing and chopping of fresh ingredients that would become their lunch.
The students created a fabulous stir fry chicken recipe served over rice and topped it off with hot fudge sundaes for dessert. The best part was sitting down together to enjoy their meal and cleaning up together!
Students participating in the Summer Career Experience include Bethel-Tate students Anthony Boggs, Harry Hill, Noah Kaiser, Madison Lanigan, Savannah Long, Hannah Rhoten, and Morgan Wiechel; Felicity-Franklin students Hannah Auxier, Haley Belt, Brandon Bush, Bradley Elkins, Branden Hoobler, Jessica Hoobler, Kaylee Hughes, Dakota Lung, Abigail Pollock, Emily Shinkle, and Alexis Summerfield; New Richmond students Cierra Augst, Elizabeth Barber, Corey Baker, Becca Ellington, Luke Hoagland, Travis Justice, and Tabitha Stevens; and Williamsburg students Christen Abrams, Dylan Bailey, Allie Graybill, Kaitlyn Hollins, Samantha Jones, Rachel List, Sam McManus, and Steven Strubbe.
The day was capped off with an award ceremony with parents and special guests. The consensus of staff, students, and parents was that the Summer Career Experience was a great success and students had a little more career awareness under their belts as they prepared to enter high school in the fall.