From the Classroom to a Career

Imagine a future where every student has the tools and opportunities to carve out a successful career path – it's happening right now in the world of Career and Technical Education (CTE). February's CTE Month shines a light on the experiences offered to our students. Dr. Lori Martin, Supervisor of CTE,  joins us to discuss the "Take a Peake Job Shadowing Day" which plays a pivotal role in student success stories like that of Caiden Bingham, a Western Branch High School grad who's now thriving at Manufacturing & Design Technology, thanks to the job shadowing experience. Dacia Marxrieser from MDT, Inc., shares a behind-the-scenes look at the symbiotic relationship between local schools and the industry, and how it's helping to fill the skills gap in manufacturing. Listen to this great partnership between education and business and the impact it has on our community’s future. 

Chapters

• 0:00 CTE Month and Job Shadowing Celebration
• 5:18 School Collaboration for Career Exploration
• 12:32 Discovering Career Opportunities in CTE Programs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Amplify the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia. We serve 40,000 students in 45 schools and three centers. This podcast is designed to tell the stories behind our story and to introduce and celebrate the people and programs that make us one of the premier school districts in Virginia.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Hey everyone, this is Matt Graham here with Richie Babb. Welcome back to our faithful listeners, and even the unfaithful ones.

Speaker 2: 0:41

That's true, we don't care, we're happy that you're listening. If you're hearing this, we're happy about it.

Speaker 1: 0:47

That is true. I mean, what else are you going to do in February?

Speaker 2: 0:49

It's freezing out what are you going to do? Watch the weather forecast and hope for snow right, and then the next week be 60?

Speaker 3: 0:55

degrees.

Speaker 2: 0:56

There's no need to put your clothes up in this area. There's no need to put, like your short sleeve shirts up because you're going to need them. That is true. Although you can put up your sweaters in the summertime, it doesn't get cold enough sweaters in the summertime, it just gets hot. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Human. So, listeners out there, we have an exciting story to share with you in this episode. It's all due to one of the programs that Dr Laurie Martin and the CTE department put on called Take a Peak Job Shadowing Day, and it just so happens that one of the students that participated in this from Western Branch High School they've now graduated took a part in this Take a Peak Job Shadowing Day with a company, mdt Manufacturing, design Technology, and now has career.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Alright, welcome to another, yet another episode. You actually have made it seven whole episodes. This will be the seventh one.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Yeah, but not cancelled yet.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Yes, right, so we're celebrating. Yeah. Today we're talking about, february is CTE month, career and technical education month, and we have some special guests to talk about that. Dr Laurie Martin, supervisor of career and technical education, is with us. They share Mark's Reaser from Manufacturing and Design Technology Incorporated. Her company has hired a Chesapeake graduate who want to get into how that works and what CTE offerings are. And then Kaden Bingham is with us. He's the graduate now works at MDT. So thank you so much for taking your time to be in here with us today and I'm gonna turn Matt Eluson Uh-oh.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Watch out. No again, thanks for being here, and it is CTE month and, Laurie, can you go ahead and talk to us about all the things that we're offering during the month of February?

Speaker 5: 2:47

Oh, thank you so much for having me. Well, cte month, just to kind of let you know, is a National Public Awareness Campaign the month of February, cte month, and so we do lots of great things in the city to let folks know about CTE. One of the things you'll see is, throughout the city, at all of our high schools and middle schools, you'll see some CTE flags and signs. We also are gonna be speaking at the February Chesapeake Chamber of Commerce meeting about CTE. We're also gonna be speaking at the February Chesapeake Economic and Development meeting to share about CTE with them. We have a VEX Robotics competition that's gonna be at Deep Creek Middle School. Our technology Student Association regional competition will be on February 24th at Grasfeld High School. And then we're gonna end the month again with our second annual Take a Peak Job Shouting Day, which will be on February 29th.

Speaker 2: 3:40

And we want to point out, of course we're celebrating February CTE month, but you do stuff in other months.

Speaker 5: 3:50

The other thing is the last city council meeting. Mayor West is gonna proclaim CTE month from the City of Chesapeake on that date, on February 27th. I forgot to mention that. But of course we do things all year long for CTE. But the month of February is kind of designated as a National Public Awareness Month, and so we try to do some extra things to let folks know about the great programs we have.

Speaker 1: 4:11

Right Now, before you got into CTE as a supervisor, can you tell us a little bit about kind of your background here with Chesapeake?

Speaker 5: 4:20

Well, I've always been in CTE. I started off as a CTE teacher at Deep Creek High School and then I moved over to Hickory High School in Great Bridge and I taught some different CTE classes. I did a little bit of ESL at some point. Then I came back and did work with initial credentials with our CTE department and then I moved into the role that I'm in now. So I've always had a passion for CTE. I think it does great things for kids and I feel like in the past several years everybody's kind of caught up with the fact of how wonderful CTE is and it's definitely a big push in our city and the state.

Speaker 1: 4:55

And one of the things that we have is that Take a Peak program that you started last year and we have a nice community partner with us here that took part in that, and that's with Dacia. So, dacia, can you go ahead and tell us a little bit about you yourself, your background?

Speaker 3: 5:10

Well, thank you for having me here also and inviting me, and this is a great way to tie the entire program together. My background I'm working at Manufacturing Design Technology, actually as co-owner. I married the owner. My husband started the business in 1982. And I'm personally, I'm trained, my career is in medicine, I'm a nurse and so, as I just transitioned into the office slowly but I have learned all the office procedures and accounting and everything that goes into office work at a manufacturing facility.

Speaker 2: 5:54

Awesome. So what does your company do specifically and why would you want to get involved in the CTE offerings and get involved with the school system?

Speaker 3: 6:03

Well, mdt stands for Manufacturing and Design Technology, so the name pretty much tells both sides of the story. We are a very strong engineering company. We have several engineers, mechanical engineers, and they're capable of drawing and designing and engineering anything. We have many programs. We have 3D modeling programs, which are the same that NASA uses and the shipyards use, and these are really critical in making parts, not just in two dimensions on paper, but you can see them and how they work and how the parts go together in 3D modeling. So we have that capability and then behind it comes manufacturing. So we don't just say here's what you can make, what somebody else can make, we can make it. So we have the strength in both areas and one of the big advantages to all of our customers is that they come with drawings or designs to build machines, which is really our specialty. We build machine tools and we can take it straight to engineering and say there's a problem with your design and we save them money.

Speaker 4: 7:19

Right.

Speaker 3: 7:19

We save time for everybody so, and they really reap the benefits from that, because there's a lot of mistakes that we catch and they may not have the same engineering programs that we do, and so we're capable to do that. And then we do precision manufacturing. When we build machines, there's thousands of parts that go together, and for the parts to go together and work they have to be precision, and we can do within microns is what the tolerance that that's like splitting your hair 10 times so that these parts can go together and build a machine and that it functions.

Speaker 2: 8:04

So why the involvement with the school system?

Speaker 3: 8:06

Well, it was a great evolution really. We started by getting involved with other manufacturing companies around the entire Hampton Roads say we need machinists, and it was obvious that the place to start was with education and the programs that I grew up with what we called shop are all gone this time 15, 20 years ago everyone wanted to send their child to university.

Speaker 3: 8:36

It was unanimous they had to go to college or university. And in the meantime there's slowly this gap widening for trade and this career path that was no longer available for high school graduates. So we brought in the universities, the college, tcc, and we talked and talked and over the years of TCC here in Chesapeake has restarted the machinist program mechatronics, electrical engineering and it's like we've come full circle. So that's how it evolved from the need for the entire area, all the manufacturers, to look for some skilled laborers. And we looked to the university and college and they were very happy. They're always very happy to help us.

Speaker 5: 9:29

Because what helps us helps them.

Speaker 3: 9:31

Sure right, right right, so it's a win-win situation and that those are the best.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Right. So, Lori, tell us how y'all got this whole Take a Peak job shadowing day started.

Speaker 5: 9:42

Thank you. So luckily last year we were kind of given the go light to go ahead and move forward with doing a job shadowing day, and so I presented it and everybody was forward that. Luckily the communications department kind of took a spun on it and called it Take a Peak Day, which I thought was a great title. We did reach out to the business connections that we have in the city to see if they'd be interested in hosting a student for the day, and I think a lot of businesses then were very on board with doing that. Initially, when I would go out and talk to companies about having students come in and do a work-based learning experiences, sometimes they were a little hesitant of having students under 18 come in for a long experience. But I think having students come in for just the day, a job shadowing day, was something they were very interested in, and so last year we did host our first job shadowing day. We reached out to I believe we had around 27 businesses outside of the city of Chesapeake and then we also had every department within the city of Chesapeake also hosted a student, and so we had over 100 students last year who participated. They were out of school for the day excuse absence, of course and they went to a place of work and they mentored under someone learning about the different job responsibilities. Every student that participated had to complete an application prior, and we had a list of all the different companies that were gonna be hosting a student, and so students were able to select different career interests they were.

Speaker 5: 11:05

So we tried to place students in a place of business that they were actually interested in. So that's where Dacia came in. We had previously met before a few times. Jason Ewers, who's our work-based learning coordinator at Deep Creek High School, had connected me with Dacia and we went to a couple of economic development meetings that she was at, and Jason and I actually went and toured their facility and learned a lot about their business and her passion for wanting to work with us and their students, and so she, of course, said she would have a student for the day, and that's where Caden came in.

Speaker 5: 11:37

He had applied and we placed him there. He was a student at Western Branch High School, so he was there for the day and had a great experience learning the hands-on things that go on with the business. So we were getting ready to do our second annual job shouting day right now. We have students who are applying. We have over 100 students who have already applied. We have a lot more businesses on board this year because they had heard about it last year, and I think it's a great way for businesses to connect with students and then students just to kind of get a day in the life of what it would be like to work at a business.

Speaker 2: 12:11

All right, well, that takes us to Caden. Then, caden, give us a little bit of your background, and you said you were a student at Western Branch. What made you get involved in this program?

Speaker 4: 12:19

Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for having me and just giving me the time to talk about all of this. I just turned 20. So it's just now starting to kick in for life and a career. I spent a good chunk of my high school year or, yeah, high school at Starbucks, actually started working there, got a little bit of a understanding on work and how everything works together other people working with each other, who you don't like to work with all of that and honestly, when I heard about this experience, I had no idea it would take me this far, at least up until this time, and it was kind of what I've been looking for kind of in my whole life.

Speaker 4: 13:07

Just like I'm a very hands-on kind of person, I kind of have to see what's wrong and to order to kind of start figuring out how to how to fix it. You know, my uncle was a. He was an electrician first in Tara and um, he was a mechanic as well on the free time and he was kind of like the starter who kind of showed me, you know, like this is how this works and how everything else works. And talking more to my parents and my grandparents, I found out that my great grandfather was actually a machinist inside the uh, norfolk yard.

Speaker 4: 13:44

So it was just kind of like good feeling when I found that out. You know it's just saw how his life turned out, you know it was pretty good for him and so I just I find it kind of comforting in a way, just to know, you know, this is kind of my way to connect with him, see how he started it and see where he got and just to see how much the machinist life is actually changed and, uh, gracious, I don't even know, probably 30 years, even five years from the past. Yeah, you know, I'm sure.

Speaker 2: 14:17

So I imagine and you can tell me if this is not what happened, but you know, I imagine you looking at a list of uh opportunities and decide, trying to decide which place to go for your um. Take a peek experience. And so what made you select going to MDT when the opportunity was given.

Speaker 4: 14:36

Uh, I got an email from J to you banks over at Western branch. She's the the CTE person, I guess there. But she sent on an email to the students and I had filled out that Google form that Lori was talking about earlier and kind of selecting what you wanted to do, kind of what you wanted to look into. I didn't get to choose MDT, I just kind of put in you know, metalworking, I was looking for a welding experience, but that was taken up by the time. But I had gotten another email a few weeks later saying that I was accepted for a job shadowing event over at MDT and they were excited to have me over that over here and give me a day in the life of what they go through for the amount of time that I was here.

Speaker 1: 15:27

So K to go ahead and tell us about that day, the job shadowing day. What did that all entail?

Speaker 4: 15:31

For me it was a mix of both working in the warehouses, working with Dacia and the other office worker, and they are seeing how the money is spent and who gets. How do you ship things out, who we go to ship it out to save money for the customer and for us as well. Seeing in the warehouse how everything was turned and taken from this big, big pile of metal into something that is used for a much bigger machine and really just how everything is just kind of put together, how this whole company runs.

Speaker 3: 16:13

Yeah, we were making lists of things for Caden to go through every portion of the manufacturing process how the raw metal comes in and you know shipping and receiving, and then to the machines, the different types of machines, how we can see going through the entire process. And I felt it important too because there's a lot of positions in any company, not just machinists. So we also took him through the office to see how you buy the metal, how you pay for the metal, how you ship the metal, because there's a lot of opportunities in every single career path that you go down, not just one. There's a team of people that work together to get something completed. And just opening your eyes and knowing that, hey, I want to do manufacturing, but that actual position is a little bit more interesting to me.

Speaker 3: 17:07

So I like to show them all 10 positions all 10 possibilities and though you're in manufacturing, making parts, making machines you may be doing just something a little bit different in that team, Wow.

Speaker 2: 17:21

So, caden, what are you doing at MDT now? I don't mean right now, obviously you're talking on the telephone.

Speaker 4: 17:26

What are?

Speaker 2: 17:26

you. What's your job there at MDT now?

Speaker 4: 17:30

Right now I am actually looking at the TCC program for machinists and what's all that entailed right now being as little experience I have and not being able to fully understand what the computers and all the computers on the machines that you know what they're saying. But other than that I'm getting a lot of the experience working with some of these other co-workers you know, taking off like sharp corners of metals that have been come out of the machine that the machine couldn't get and just kind of doing the little things but also big, bigger things that will come to a lot more fruition down the road once you know I have more experience and more understanding behind the whole machines than after school at TCC. Stacia's actually given me a couple ends to the machinist program and what all is entailed in it the curriculum and seeing how it's going to possibly play out. Other than that, pretty much the same every day come in, find what to do, sweep up a little bit, keep it clean, yeah.

Speaker 5: 18:40

Yeah, that's one thing we really wanted to push with the job sharing day so students could really, like Dacia mentioned, get into a business and see everything there is to do, because I do think students sometimes think one or you know to have one or two careers I think they want to do until they're able to go in and actually experience it for a day, or even a longer work-based learning experience. They don't really know all the opportunities that are there. And that's really what CT wants to do. We want to show students the opportunities they have and let them go through some career awareness and exploration so they can go into the type of career they want, whether they're going to college or career, because everybody that goes to college has to come out with a career.

Speaker 2: 19:22

So either way, Right, yeah, you know we've had several conversations with people about the changes that they've seen in education. Obviously, technology is one, but I think from 1988, when I got into the school system, to now, probably the biggest change that I've seen is the explosion of opportunities, especially in the last really five or 10 years. Just an explosion of opportunities for kids through these CTE programs. And I think you know the economy sometimes drives those things, but I've seen firsthand how these CTE programs motivate kids to graduate from high school so they can get into the career field that they're in. So it's very valuable both to the kids and the businesses and the community and the economy.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Well, like even on the last episode with Mr Joseph, the principal at Oscar Smith High School. He was talking about how giving kids the opportunity. Hey, there's a Norfolk Naval Shipyard, but the Norfolk Naval Shipyard has a marketing team. They have all these different opportunities that you might not think of, and so that's really nice to see that Dacia. When you took Kate in, you showed them hey, we might be working on this machine, but we have accounting department, we have the design team. So that's the opportunities that you're talking about. That now our students are aware of. I mean, like I didn't think of that when I was in school, I mean in the past five or so years.

Speaker 2: 20:44

I would say it's in the past five, 10 years.

Speaker 3: 20:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:46

I mean this other world besides just college or enlistment is out there. Like you have all these different trades I mean in the CTE programs that y'all have is a testament to that as well, to show them the opportunities.

Speaker 2: 21:00

And we just recently went to the Career Center this past week and I mean I walked into like the automotive shop and I mean I'm like, oh my gosh, this is amazing, I didn't know this was there so yeah, they're really making the most of a very old facility down there with partnerships and they're still getting it done and they're still very passionate kids and passionate teachers down there. Obviously, CTE is on an innovation move to offer more and more and more creative programs, more opportunities for kids. What's in the future for CTE in?

Speaker 5: 21:35

Chesapeake I know we are working hard to I'm a note, as you mentioned, ccc's working really hard. Dr Kitchens over there and Joyce Billman is the workforce coordinator there and she does a great job with students. As far as placing them, one of the big initiatives, of course, is to expand that building and to have a larger building to be able to offer more programs there. I think also in our CTE programs and our high schools we offer them at all seven high schools and at all 10 middle schools. Our CTE programs and I think a lot of people don't realize some of these programs are meant for students who can go right into the workforce, but we also offer courses such as accounting and engineering. Students can leave school with industry certifications that they can take with them to college or into a career.

Speaker 5: 22:20

We also are hoping to expand work-based learning and that's one of the big goals that I'm really trying to push is to connect with these businesses, and so I think a lot of businesses are coming on board. They're realizing, like Dacia mentioned, there's that workforce gap and so the best way to do is to come to education and so really to try to get businesses on board with having students come in that are under 18 and kind of thinking outside the box. But businesses who do have students come in really see the benefit of it and because we're tapping into these resources, we really need these kids to know what kind of career they wanna go into and sometimes once they graduate from high school we lose them. But really getting those 16, 17 year old kids in a work-based learning experience and having that hands-on experience will let them know all the different career opportunities out there.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Yeah, for sure. Kayden, what is something that you would say to maybe some students who are beginning to make decisions about their future, or maybe some future graduates?

Speaker 4: 23:18

I would say honestly just be yourself. Don't let other people tell you how to live your life and take the opportunities that are placed in front of you, whether that be in a small aspect in school or even after high school. Life is full of chances and I'm figuring that out right now. Myself is just the fresh graduate. But if you have the opportunity to take to the programs and job shadowing or the CTE programs, take as much as that time as you can, get contacts from people who work there, get contacts for other people and take advantage of the technology that we have today and put it to use and just take it to a point to where you can do something with your life and make you happy. I would say I'm not a college person, I'm not very much for school, but I am for school when it has something that I enjoy and something that is hands on. Take those chances and see where it takes you. It'll take you to some crazy places.

Speaker 2: 24:32

Well, there's CTE spokesman Caden.

Speaker 1: 24:34

Bingham, caden, bingham. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2: 24:38

Well, we wanna thank all of you for taking your time to be with us today. I think the more that we can get the word out to students and families about these opportunities, I think the better off we'll be in the not just us, not just the businesses, but the kids I mean the kids their futures really can be completely changed through participating in some of these CTE programs.

Speaker 1: 25:00

Yep, thank you so much for coming and being here, Thank you. Dacia for coming in. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 5: 25:05

I think you made a good hire.

Speaker 3: 25:06

Yeah, sounds like it. I think you made a good hire. He's a great young man, that's all. I'm very happy and very pleased.

Speaker 1: 25:14

We hope you enjoyed the stories behind our story on this episode of Amplify the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. Feel free to visit us at cpschoolscom forward slash amplified for any questions or comments, and make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcast.