Local businesspeople and career technical education students gathered Tuesday night at Northern Bedford’s high school cafeteria to receive updates on the district’s CTE program during an occupational advisory committee dinner and meeting.
Shawn Cerully, the high school principal, started the night with an update on the student population in the CTE program. There are 63 students in the senior class involved with CTE at either the full level or elective-taking level. There are 68 juniors involved at some level and 52 sophomores are involved at some level.
He also provided an update on the CTE’s cooperative education program.
“One of the benefits of CTE is that we can give our kids a real-world experience while learning in the classroom, which is pretty cool. And so we did just that,” said Cerully about students helping with the greenhouse.
He explained that students helped with the process. Students helped dig out the inside of the greenhouse last spring. The construction students helped put down flooring and pour the concrete, among other steps.
Horticulture and AG students also assisted.
“It ended up being a great learning experience for our students to get to see how this works. And for many of them, this was the first time they got to do that, and now they have that opportunity to, when they come back sometime, say, ‘Yeah, you know, I helped with that,’ ” said Cerully.
“We got heated floors in the greenhouse, and I’m like jumping up and down every single day because it’s a big game changer. It is really cleaning things up and it’s looking really good. The kids are super excited, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Bethany Kensinger, applied horticulture instructor.
The night was also used to honor a student from each of the programs.
Ashton Detterline was honored for the building construction occupations program. ‘”He’s always asking questions. And you can give him something to do and not tell him every piece of the information and he’ll figure it out because he enjoys doing that kind of thing. And he’s going to be successful wherever he goes, whatever he chooses to do,” said Brian Frederick, building construction occupations instructor.
Brock Beach was honored for the automotive mechanic technology program.
“He’s always willing to learn. He’s always willing to work,” said Ken Dibert, automotive mechanic technology instructor.
He added, “He’s a good kid. I can depend on him. Anybody would like to have Brock whenever he’s out in the world and gets a job.”
Samantha Corle was honored for the applied horticulture program.
“She’s more than willing to do anything to help out and she motivates the younger kids and is a really good role model for them,” said Kensinger.
Emma Byler was honored for the agriculture production program.
“Great student, works hard, gets everything done. As FFA president, she’s also looking ahead to see what she needs to do. She’s taking initiative. She’s not waiting for the last minute,” said Jim Over, agriculture production operations instructor.
