CTE is a type of education combining academic and technical skills meant to prepare students for postsecondary education or the workforce.
Between Coconino High School and Flagstaff High School, there are 16 CTE programs. These cover skills from traditional industry trades such as welding and automotive to graphic design and film and television production.
Over half of the programs are available at both high schools, with some being exclusive to one. For example, sports medicine is only available at FHS, while agriscience is only at CHS.
In FUSD’s effort to support CTE learning, it has partnered with Coconino Association for Vocations, Industry and Technology (CAVIAT), Coconino Community College, Yavapai College (YC), and other organizations in the area to organize and fund the program.
CAVIAT is one of the Career and Technical Education Districts (CTEDs) in Arizona and an overlay school district to FUSD. FUSD and CAVIAT partner with CCC and YC to offer high school students dual enrollment for the opportunity to earn college credits toward a degree or industry certifications.
“CTE was uniquely positioned to provide a great education for students,” said Thomas Safrenak, FUSD's director of College and Career Development. “There’s a lot of benefits to CTE because it’s a holistic educational model. They’re not just learning one thing. They’re learning a number of things that are all tied together in a relevant and meaningful way for them.”
Safrenak said CTE is a premiere model of education and that it shows in the students.
According to an article written in 2022 by the U.S. News & World Report, high school students who complete at least two credits in a CTE program have a 95 percent graduation rate — roughly 10 percent of the national average.
Facilitating such success rates and an engaging environment in which students want to get hands-on experience starts with the teachers. According to Safrenak, the CTE program has always been fortunate enough to have exceptional educators who can make connections with students and get them excited about what they’re learning.
Delia became a teacher at FHS in 2017 as a step toward her goal of becoming an athletic trainer. She has worked at FHS since then, doing both athletic training and sport medicine.
She teaches three periods of the sports medicine course — level one, two and three.
A typical class starts with Delia’s “housekeeping,” which is letting students know the plan for the day or week, showing them important notes and announcements. After announcements for the day and sharing their daily gratitude, students are left to work on the assigned lab or are taken through a lecture for material they’ll need to know for the week’s curriculum.
During her lectures, Delia gets to tell her students stories from her time as an athlete and the injuries she has seen; then, she relates those stories to her curriculum, running her students through labs that analyze sport-related injuries.
Teaching the courses has allowed Delia to combine her love for being an athletic trainer with educational tools.
She said it is fun getting to interact with her students but that people underestimate the time it takes to build a positive rapport and environment with them.
It takes intentional efforts from educators to make their students feel comfortable in being vulnerable in learning to discover something they didn’t know. It is worth it to Delia, however, to take the time to build trust with the students she has known from their freshman to senior years and has seen her program grow because of that connection.
“I just got my numbers in for sports medicine 1, and I have 95 kids that want to sign up for [it] and I can only take 60,” Delia said. “It’s a good feeling.”
Seeing her program gain more demand, the district office has been supportive in letting Delia manage the class in ways that fit best for her teaching style and has made any resources available to her to improve and maintain the class. She is enthusiastic about keeping each class exciting and different for her students.
Delia said her goal as an educator is to help her students be better than they were the day before and encourage them to want to grow.
“It’s amazing seeing [my students] grow and develop and find their voice and passions,” Delia said. “And some of it has to do with the things that I teach, and it’s very rewarding.”
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Through the sports medicine program, Delia created an internship offering students the experience of working in her on-campus clinic, learning about sports medicine using real people. Exclusive opportunities are part of what Delia said makes CTE programs so essential to students.
Among these innovative programs is yearbook and digital photography taught by Kelly Marquez.
Ironically, Marquez wanted to become an athletic trainer as well, but soon realized the student-focused aspect of education was what she enjoyed more. She went on to study secondary education English with hopes of becoming a yearbook teacher because of her love for journalism when she was in high school.
Marquez started her own photography business to gain career experience, and when a yearbook position opened up at the high school, she went for it.
This is now her fourth year at CHS teaching photography and yearbook.
Photography one is a required prerequisite for the rest of the photography classes Marquez teaches.
The photography class follows a weekly schedule. It shows when students will have a project for the week and when they will go through rigorous training Monday through Friday to learn what will be expected of them in a professional setting.
After every assignment is turned in on Friday, Marquez and her class talk about career skills they are learning about and how they can be utilized to build their portfolios.
Marquez said the best part about being an educator under a CTE program is watching her students apply what she has taught to them to areas outside the classroom.
The students in her class find their passion for the course beyond the classroom, and some will go on to study photography or other facets of journalism in college or go straight in the career field.
“It’s the best position to ever be in,” Marquez said. “You have students who want to be there. They find a passion that is something they thrive in and they’re excited to come to class. It just makes it a really fun day.”
Most of the students in this pathway will do both photography and yearbook to get their hand in different features of multimedia. In the photography class, students are becoming proficient in their camera and editing skills and learning the professionalism they need to have clients and build a business. Supplementary to that, being a part of the yearbook course shows students the importance of deadlines and managing the production of their work.
In the yearbook class, Marquez has leaned more into the journalistic route. She pushes her students to put intention behind each caption, quote and headline, emphasizing that they should create a story or meaning behind each photo.
This is to teach them the significance of creating something meaningful to be shared with people for years to come — symbolic of what yearbooks aim to do.
When a student completes the photography program, they can receive a certificate classifying them as an Adobe expert. The certificate can be used as experience on their resumes if they choose to pursue a career in photography.
Marquez said CTE programs help reach a population of students that might not be acknowledged, such as artistic and skill-based individuals. She said she is proud to see the students who join her class freshman year flourish as they continue in a program fitted to them and their learning style.
“I strive to have strong, independent and skilled people to enter the real world,” Marquez said. “It’s my goal to build a strong foundation for them to be successful.”
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