In society, there are a lot of gender dominated career fields that at the Career Center, we aim to defeat. We have a lot of students that are learning and establishing knowledge in career fields that are dominated by the opposite gender. Jenna Hammonds is an outstanding student we have in our Modern Machining class.
She is the only female in her class, but that doesn’t stop her from pursuing a career she loves. There are four boys in the afternoon Health Occupations class and a few boys in the Health Careers class, which are overwhelmed with girls. The medical field is not always a female dominated field, but in our area well above over 50% of our nurses are female, so more male striving to gain their CNA licenses is an awesome boost of diversity in that area of the medical field.
This December, an Automotive student also held a food drive that every single class participated in. Before winter break, our commons area had a huge pile of food to be donated. The Valparaiso Noon Kiwanis Club also had a coat drive at the Career Center, which also had a great turnout! The coats were donated to kids and families in our community!
There are also a few female students in the Automotive and Construction classes. Our students are just small blocks in the community where we are trying to build more diversity and more opportunities. One of the students mentioned above, Jenna Hammonds currently has a job in her field at Task Force Tips and loves it. She is just one example that females can compete in a male’s career as well as males being able to compete in a female’s career.
Starting next semester the health classes will begin their clinicals so they are one step closer to getting their CAN licenses. Half of the students will be in a nursing home and the other half will be at an off-site clinical they picked. At the 4th grading period, the students will switch locations.
The train depot is still being remodeled so that in a few short years we will be able to use it as a classroom and many other things. The more gatherings we have the more thankful we are to eventually be able to use the Depot as a gathering center. It is also awesome that we are able to say that our own students got to work on it and be a huge part of the process! We are very excited to have the Depot and excited for it to be done as well.
Also, the Entrepreneurship and Marketing classes will have their DECA District Competition when we get back on January 9th. The competition will consist of a written test and a role-play presented in front of a judge. The students will be graded based on both their test scores and their role-play scores. The top places get to compete in the state competition in February, which is a total blast!
The teacher shout out for this month is Mrs. Marcus, which is one of our two health teachers in the Career Center. Mrs. Marcus always has a smile on her face and every student has nothing but positive things to say about her. A few students that graduated several years ago said their best memories was when they were in her class and that she was the sweetest teacher. Mrs. Marcus is an important role in her student’s education as she can help them get ahead in their career and it is important that her students are able to learn so much from her.
She also helped coordinate the students as they caroled at Pines Village! It is great to see teachers motivate their students to be involved with the community because we know something as simple as Christmas caroling means a lot to their residents.
The student shout out this month is to Marissa Brys, a Health Careers student in Mrs. Marcus’ class. Marissa is a junior at Washington Township and is pretty popular for her volleyball skills.
When she was asked what the best thing about her class was she responded with this, “The best thing about my class is that we all act like a family and we are probably the funniest class ever.”
The classroom is very important to us at the Porter County Career Center so when a student enjoys the company of their class it is an awesome thing! This is only Marissa’s first year at the Career Center but just like every other student that comes here, she already loves it!
Marissa is also involved with HOSA through her class and she is involved with travel volleyball as well as high school volleyball. Marissa’s favorite color is orange and she is an awesome student!