February 5, 2024 • 25 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Amplify the Chesapeake Public Schools
podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads
area of southeastern Virginia.
We serve 40,000 students in 45schools and three centers.
This podcast is designed totell the stories behind our
story and to introduce andcelebrate the people and
programs that make us one of thepremier school districts in
Virginia.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey everyone, this is Matt Graham here with Richie
Babb.
Welcome back to our faithfullisteners, and even the
unfaithful ones.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That's true, we don't care, we're happy that you're
listening.
If you're hearing this, we'rehappy about it.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
That is true.
I mean, what else are you goingto do in February?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's freezing out what are you going to do?
Watch the weather forecast andhope for snow right, and then
the next week be 60?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
degrees.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
There's no need to put your clothes up in this area
.
There's no need to put, likeyour short sleeve shirts up
because you're going to needthem.
That is true.
Although you can put up yoursweaters in the summertime, it
doesn't get cold enough sweatersin the summertime, it just gets
hot.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Human.
So, listeners out there, wehave an exciting story to share
with you in this episode.
It's all due to one of theprograms that Dr Laurie Martin
and the CTE department put oncalled Take a Peak Job Shadowing
Day, and it just so happensthat one of the students that
(01:30):
participated in this fromWestern Branch High School
they've now graduated took apart in this Take a Peak Job
Shadowing Day with a company,mdt Manufacturing, design
Technology, and now has career.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Alright, welcome to another, yet another episode.
You actually have made it sevenwhole episodes.
This will be the seventh one.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, but not cancelled yet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
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 ofcareer and technical education,
is with us.
They share Mark's Reaser fromManufacturing and Design
Technology Incorporated.
Her company has hired aChesapeake graduate who want to
(02:19):
get into how that works and whatCTE offerings are.
And then Kaden Bingham is withus.
He's the graduate now works atMDT.
So thank you so much for takingyour time to be in here with us
today and I'm gonna turn MattEluson Uh-oh.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Watch out.
No again, thanks for being here, and it is CTE month and,
Laurie, can you go ahead andtalk to us about all the things
that we're offering during themonth of February?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Well, cte month, just to kindof let you know, is a National
Public Awareness Campaign themonth of February, cte month,
and so we do lots of greatthings 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 middleschools, you'll see some CTE
flags and signs.
We also are gonna be speakingat the February Chesapeake
(03:11):
Chamber of Commerce meetingabout CTE.
We're also gonna be speaking atthe February Chesapeake
Economic and Development meetingto share about CTE with them.
We have a VEX Roboticscompetition that's gonna be at
Deep Creek Middle School.
Our technology StudentAssociation regional competition
will be on February 24th atGrasfeld High School.
(03:33):
And then we're gonna end themonth again with our second
annual Take a Peak Job ShoutingDay, which will be on February
29th.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And we want to point out, of course we're celebrating
February CTE month, but you dostuff in other months.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
The other thing is the last city council meeting.
Mayor West is gonna proclaimCTE month from the City of
Chesapeake on that date, onFebruary 27th.
I forgot to mention that.
But of course we do things allyear long for CTE.
But the month of February iskind of designated as a National
Public Awareness Month, and sowe try to do some extra things
to let folks know about thegreat programs we have.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Right Now, before you got into CTE as a supervisor,
can you tell us a little bitabout kind of your background
here with Chesapeake?
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Well, I've always been in CTE.
I started off as a CTE teacherat Deep Creek High School and
then I moved over to HickoryHigh School in Great Bridge and
I taught some different CTEclasses.
I did a little bit of ESL atsome point.
Then I came back and did workwith initial credentials with
our CTE department and then Imoved into the role that I'm in
(04:40):
now.
So I've always had a passionfor CTE.
I think it does great thingsfor kids and I feel like in the
past several years everybody'skind of caught up with the fact
of how wonderful CTE is and it'sdefinitely a big push in our
city and the state.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And one of the things that we have is that Take a
Peak program that you startedlast year and we have a nice
community partner with us herethat took part in that, and
that's with Dacia.
So, dacia, can you go ahead andtell us a little bit about you
yourself, your background?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Well, thank you for having me here also and inviting
me, and this is a great way totie the entire program together.
My background I'm working atManufacturing Design Technology,
actually as co-owner.
I married the owner.
My husband started the businessin 1982.
(05:33):
And I'm personally, I'm trained, my career is in medicine, I'm
a nurse and so, as I justtransitioned into the office
slowly but I have learned allthe office procedures and
accounting and everything thatgoes into office work at a
manufacturing facility.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Awesome.
So what does your company dospecifically and why would you
want to get involved in the CTEofferings and get involved with
the school system?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Well, mdt stands for Manufacturing and Design
Technology, so the name prettymuch tells both sides of the
story.
We are a very strongengineering company.
We have several engineers,mechanical engineers, and
they're capable of drawing anddesigning and engineering
(06:24):
anything.
We have many programs.
We have 3D modeling programs,which are the same that NASA
uses and the shipyards use, andthese are really critical in
making parts, not just in twodimensions on paper, but you can
see them and how they work andhow the parts go together in 3D
modeling.
So we have that capability andthen behind it comes
(06:47):
manufacturing.
So we don't just say here'swhat you can make, what somebody
else can make, we can make it.
So we have the strength in bothareas and one of the big
advantages to all of ourcustomers is that they come with
drawings or designs to buildmachines, which is really our
(07:09):
specialty.
We build machine tools and wecan take it straight to
engineering and say there's aproblem with your design and we
save them money.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
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 theymay not have the same
engineering programs that we do,and so we're capable to do that
.
And then we do precisionmanufacturing.
(07:40):
When we build machines, there'sthousands of parts that go
together, and for the parts togo together and work they have
to be precision, and we can dowithin microns is what the
tolerance that that's likesplitting your hair 10 times so
that these parts can go togetherand build a machine and that it
(08:02):
functions.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
So why the involvement with the school
system?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Well, it was a great evolution really.
We started by getting involvedwith other manufacturing
companies around the entireHampton Roads say we need
machinists, and it was obviousthat the place to start was with
education and the programs thatI grew up with what we called
(08:27):
shop are all gone this time 15,20 years ago everyone wanted to
send their child to university.
It was unanimous they had to goto college or university.
And in the meantime there'sslowly this gap widening for
trade and this career path thatwas no longer available for high
(08:52):
school graduates.
So we brought in theuniversities, the college, tcc,
and we talked and talked andover the years of TCC here in
Chesapeake has restarted themachinist program mechatronics,
electrical engineering and it'slike we've come full circle.
(09:12):
So that's how it evolved fromthe need for the entire area,
all the manufacturers, to lookfor some skilled laborers.
And we looked to the universityand college and they were very
happy.
They're always very happy tohelp us.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Because what helps us helps them.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Sure right, right right, so it's a win-win
situation and that those are thebest.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Right.
So, Lori, tell us how y'all gotthis whole Take a Peak job
shadowing day started.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Thank you.
So luckily last year we werekind of given the go light to go
ahead and move forward withdoing a job shadowing day, and
so I presented it and everybodywas forward that.
Luckily the communicationsdepartment kind of took a spun
on it and called it Take a PeakDay, which I thought was a great
title.
We did reach out to thebusiness connections that we
have in the city to see ifthey'd be interested in hosting
(10:03):
a student for the day, and Ithink a lot of businesses then
were very on board with doingthat.
Initially, when I would go outand talk to companies about
having students come in and do awork-based learning experiences
, sometimes they were a littlehesitant of having students
under 18 come in for a longexperience.
But I think having studentscome in for just the day, a job
shadowing day, was somethingthey were very interested in,
(10:26):
and so last year we did host ourfirst job shadowing day.
We reached out to I believe wehad around 27 businesses outside
of the city of Chesapeake andthen we also had every
department within the city ofChesapeake also hosted a student
, and so we had over 100students last year who
participated.
They were out of school for theday excuse absence, of course
(10:48):
and they went to a place of workand they mentored under someone
learning about the differentjob responsibilities.
Every student that participatedhad to complete an application
prior, and we had a list of allthe different companies that
were gonna be hosting a student,and so students were able to
select different careerinterests they were.
So we tried to place students ina place of business that they
(11:08):
were actually interested in.
So that's where Dacia came in.
We had previously met before afew times.
Jason Ewers, who's ourwork-based learning coordinator
at Deep Creek High School, hadconnected me with Dacia and we
went to a couple of economicdevelopment meetings that she
was at, and Jason and I actuallywent and toured their facility
and learned a lot about theirbusiness and her passion for
(11:30):
wanting to work with us andtheir students, and so she, of
course, said she would have astudent for the day, and that's
where Caden came in.
He had applied and we placed himthere.
He was a student at WesternBranch High School, so he was
there for the day and had agreat experience learning the
hands-on things that go on withthe business.
So we were getting ready to doour second annual job shouting
(11:53):
day right now.
We have students who areapplying.
We have over 100 students whohave already applied.
We have a lot more businesseson board this year because they
had heard about it last year,and I think it's a great way for
businesses to connect withstudents and then students just
to kind of get a day in the lifeof 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 littlebit of your background, and you
said you were a student atWestern Branch.
What made you get involved inthis program?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for having me and
just giving me the time to talkabout all of this.
I just turned 20.
So it's just now starting tokick in for life and a career.
I spent a good chunk of my highschool year or, yeah, high
school at Starbucks, actuallystarted working there, got a
(12:39):
little bit of a understanding onwork and how everything works
together other people workingwith each other, who you don't
like to work with all of thatand honestly, when I heard about
this experience, I had no ideait would take me this far, at
least up until this time, and itwas kind of what I've been
(13:04):
looking for kind of in my wholelife.
Just like I'm a very hands-onkind of person, I kind of have
to see what's wrong and to orderto kind of start figuring out
how to how to fix it.
You know, my uncle was a.
He was an electrician first inTara and um, he was a mechanic
as well on the free time and hewas kind of like the starter who
(13:28):
kind of showed me, you know,like this is how this works and
how everything else works.
And talking more to my parentsand my grandparents, I found out
that my great grandfather wasactually a machinist inside the
uh, norfolk yard.
So it was just kind of like goodfeeling when I found that out.
You know it's just saw how hislife turned out, you know it was
(13:51):
pretty good for him and so Ijust I find it kind of
comforting in a way, just toknow, you know, this is kind of
my way to connect with him, seehow he started it and see where
he got and just to see how muchthe machinist life is actually
changed and, uh, gracious, Idon't even know, probably 30
(14:12):
years, even five years from thepast.
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, Iimagine 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 selectgoing 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, Iguess there.
But she sent on an email to thestudents and I had filled out
that Google form that Lori wastalking about earlier and kind
of selecting what you wanted todo, kind of what you wanted to
look into.
I didn't get to choose MDT, Ijust kind of put in you know,
(14:58):
metalworking, I was looking fora welding experience, but that
was taken up by the time.
But I had gotten another emaila few weeks later saying that I
was accepted for a job shadowingevent over at MDT and they were
excited to have me over thatover here and give me a day in
the life of what they go throughfor the amount of time that I
(15:25):
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 Daciaand the other office worker, and
they are seeing how the moneyis spent and who gets.
How do you ship things out, whowe go to ship it out to save
money for the customer and forus as well.
(15:53):
Seeing in the warehouse howeverything was turned and taken
from this big, big pile of metalinto something that is used for
a much bigger machine andreally just how everything is
just kind of put together, howthis whole company runs.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, we were making lists of things for Caden to go
through every portion of themanufacturing process how the
raw metal comes in and you knowshipping and receiving, and then
to the machines, the differenttypes of machines, how we can
see going through the entireprocess.
And I felt it important toobecause there's a lot of
(16:35):
positions in any company, notjust machinists.
So we also took him through theoffice to see how you buy the
metal, how you pay for the metal, how you ship the metal,
because there's a lot ofopportunities in every single
career path that you go down,not just one.
There's a team of people thatwork together to get something
(16:58):
completed.
And just opening your eyes andknowing that, hey, I want to do
manufacturing, but that actualposition is a little bit more
interesting to me.
So I like to show them all 10positions all 10 possibilities
and though you're inmanufacturing, making parts,
making machines you may be doingjust something a little bit
(17:19):
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 MDTnow?
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Right now I am actually looking at the TCC
program for machinists andwhat's all that entailed right
now being as little experience Ihave and not being able to
fully understand what thecomputers and all the computers
on the machines that you knowwhat they're saying.
But other than that I'm gettinga lot of the experience working
(17:53):
with some of these otherco-workers you know, taking off
like sharp corners of metalsthat have been come out of the
machine that the machinecouldn't get and just kind of
doing the little things but alsobig, bigger things that will
come to a lot more fruition downthe road once you know I have
(18:13):
more experience and moreunderstanding behind the whole
machines than after school atTCC.
Stacia's actually given me acouple ends to the machinist
program and what all is entailedin it the curriculum and seeing
how it's going to possibly playout.
Other than that, pretty muchthe same every day come in, find
(18:35):
what to do, sweep up a littlebit, keep it clean, yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, that's one thing we really wanted to push
with the job sharing day sostudents could really, like
Dacia mentioned, get into abusiness and see everything
there is to do, because I dothink students sometimes think
one or you know to have one ortwo careers I think they want to
do until they're able to go inand actually experience it for a
day, or even a longerwork-based learning experience.
(19:02):
They don't really know all theopportunities that are there.
And that's really what CT wantsto do.
We want to show students theopportunities they have and let
them go through some careerawareness and exploration so
they can go into the type ofcareer they want, whether
they're going to college orcareer, because everybody that
goes to college has to come outwith a career.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So either way, Right, yeah, you know we've had
several conversations withpeople 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, tonow, probably the biggest change
that I've seen is the explosionof opportunities, especially in
(19:42):
the last really five or 10years.
Just an explosion ofopportunities for kids through
these CTE programs.
And I think you know theeconomy sometimes drives those
things, but I've seen firsthandhow these CTE programs motivate
kids to graduate from highschool so they can get into the
career field that they're in.
So it's very valuable both tothe kids and the businesses and
(20:05):
the community and the economy.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, like even on the last episode with Mr Joseph,
the principal at Oscar SmithHigh School.
He was talking about how givingkids the opportunity.
Hey, there's a Norfolk NavalShipyard, but the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard has a marketing team.
They have all these differentopportunities that you might not
think of, and so that's reallynice to see that Dacia.
When you took Kate in, youshowed them hey, we might be
(20:28):
working on this machine, but wehave accounting department, we
have the design team.
So that's the opportunitiesthat you're talking about.
That now our students are awareof.
I mean, like I didn't think ofthat when I was in school, I
mean in the past five or soyears.
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 thesedifferent trades I mean in the
CTE programs that y'all have isa 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 walkedinto 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'rereally making the most of a very
old facility down there withpartnerships and they're still
getting it done and they'restill very passionate kids and
(21:22):
passionate teachers down there.
Obviously, CTE is on aninnovation move to offer more
and more and more creativeprograms, 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 workingreally hard.
Dr Kitchens over there andJoyce Billman is the workforce
coordinator there and she does agreat job with students.
As far as placing them, one ofthe big initiatives, of course,
is to expand that building andto have a larger building to be
able to offer more programsthere.
(21:56):
I think also in our CTEprograms and our high schools we
offer them at all seven highschools and at all 10 middle
schools.
Our CTE programs and I think alot of people don't realize some
of these programs are meant forstudents who can go right into
the workforce, but we also offercourses such as accounting and
engineering.
Students can leave school withindustry certifications that
(22:17):
they can take with them tocollege or into a career.
We also are hoping to expandwork-based learning and that's
one of the big goals that I'mreally 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 Daciamentioned, there's that
workforce gap and so the bestway to do is to come to
education and so really to tryto get businesses on board with
(22:39):
having students come in that areunder 18 and kind of thinking
outside the box.
But businesses who do havestudents come in really see the
benefit of it and because we'retapping into these resources, we
really need these kids to knowwhat kind of career they wanna
go into and sometimes once theygraduate from high school we
lose them.
But really getting those 16, 17year old kids in a work-based
(23:02):
learning experience and havingthat hands-on experience will
let them know all the differentcareer opportunities out there.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, for sure.
Kayden, what is something thatyou would say to maybe some
students who are beginning tomake decisions about their
future, or maybe some futuregraduates?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I would say honestly just be yourself.
Don't let other people tell youhow to live your life and take
the opportunities that areplaced in front of you, whether
that be in a small aspect inschool or even after high school
.
Life is full of chances and I'mfiguring that out right now.
(23:40):
Myself is just the freshgraduate.
But if you have the opportunityto take to the programs and job
shadowing or the CTE programs,take as much as that time as you
can, get contacts from peoplewho work there, get contacts for
other people and take advantageof the technology that we have
(24:03):
today and put it to use and justtake it to a point to where you
can do something with your lifeand make you happy.
I would say I'm not a collegeperson, I'm not very much for
school, but I am for school whenit has something that I enjoy
and something that is hands on.
(24:24):
Take those chances and seewhere it takes you.
It'll take you to some crazyplaces.
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 canget the word out to students and
families about theseopportunities, I think the
better off we'll be in the notjust us, not just the businesses
, but the kids I mean the kidstheir futures really can be
completely changed throughparticipating in some of these
(24:58):
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'sall.
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 theChesapeake Public Schools
podcast.
Feel free to visit us atcpschoolscom forward slash
amplified for any questions orcomments, and make sure to
follow us wherever you get yourpodcast.
Welcome to Amplify the Chesapeake Public Schools
podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads
area of southeastern Virginia.
We serve 40,000 students in 45schools and three centers.
This podcast is designed totell the stories behind our
story and to introduce andcelebrate the people and
programs that make us one of thepremier school districts in
Virginia.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey everyone, this is Matt Graham here with Richie
Babb.
Welcome back to our faithfullisteners, and even the
unfaithful ones.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That's true, we don't care, we're happy that you're
listening.
If you're hearing this, we'rehappy about it.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
That is true.
I mean, what else are you goingto do in February?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's freezing out what are you going to do?
Watch the weather forecast andhope for snow right, and then
the next week be 60?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
degrees.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
There's no need to put your clothes up in this area
.
There's no need to put, likeyour short sleeve shirts up
because you're going to needthem.
That is true.
Although you can put up yoursweaters in the summertime, it
doesn't get cold enough sweatersin the summertime, it just gets
hot.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Human.
So, listeners out there, wehave an exciting story to share
with you in this episode.
It's all due to one of theprograms that Dr Laurie Martin
and the CTE department put oncalled Take a Peak Job Shadowing
Day, and it just so happensthat one of the students that
(01:30):
participated in this fromWestern Branch High School
they've now graduated took apart in this Take a Peak Job
Shadowing Day with a company,mdt Manufacturing, design
Technology, and now has career.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Alright, welcome to another, yet another episode.
You actually have made it sevenwhole episodes.
This will be the seventh one.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, but not cancelled yet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
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 ofcareer and technical education,
is with us.
They share Mark's Reaser fromManufacturing and Design
Technology Incorporated.
Her company has hired aChesapeake graduate who want to
(02:19):
get into how that works and whatCTE offerings are.
And then Kaden Bingham is withus.
He's the graduate now works atMDT.
So thank you so much for takingyour time to be in here with us
today and I'm gonna turn MattEluson Uh-oh.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Watch out.
No again, thanks for being here, and it is CTE month and,
Laurie, can you go ahead andtalk to us about all the things
that we're offering during themonth of February?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Well, cte month, just to kindof let you know, is a National
Public Awareness Campaign themonth of February, cte month,
and so we do lots of greatthings 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 middleschools, you'll see some CTE
flags and signs.
We also are gonna be speakingat the February Chesapeake
(03:11):
Chamber of Commerce meetingabout CTE.
We're also gonna be speaking atthe February Chesapeake
Economic and Development meetingto share about CTE with them.
We have a VEX Roboticscompetition that's gonna be at
Deep Creek Middle School.
Our technology StudentAssociation regional competition
will be on February 24th atGrasfeld High School.
(03:33):
And then we're gonna end themonth again with our second
annual Take a Peak Job ShoutingDay, which will be on February
29th.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And we want to point out, of course we're celebrating
February CTE month, but you dostuff in other months.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
The other thing is the last city council meeting.
Mayor West is gonna proclaimCTE month from the City of
Chesapeake on that date, onFebruary 27th.
I forgot to mention that.
But of course we do things allyear long for CTE.
But the month of February iskind of designated as a National
Public Awareness Month, and sowe try to do some extra things
to let folks know about thegreat programs we have.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Right Now, before you got into CTE as a supervisor,
can you tell us a little bitabout kind of your background
here with Chesapeake?
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Well, I've always been in CTE.
I started off as a CTE teacherat Deep Creek High School and
then I moved over to HickoryHigh School in Great Bridge and
I taught some different CTEclasses.
I did a little bit of ESL atsome point.
Then I came back and did workwith initial credentials with
our CTE department and then Imoved into the role that I'm in
(04:40):
now.
So I've always had a passionfor CTE.
I think it does great thingsfor kids and I feel like in the
past several years everybody'skind of caught up with the fact
of how wonderful CTE is and it'sdefinitely a big push in our
city and the state.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And one of the things that we have is that Take a
Peak program that you startedlast year and we have a nice
community partner with us herethat took part in that, and
that's with Dacia.
So, dacia, can you go ahead andtell us a little bit about you
yourself, your background?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Well, thank you for having me here also and inviting
me, and this is a great way totie the entire program together.
My background I'm working atManufacturing Design Technology,
actually as co-owner.
I married the owner.
My husband started the businessin 1982.
(05:33):
And I'm personally, I'm trained, my career is in medicine, I'm
a nurse and so, as I justtransitioned into the office
slowly but I have learned allthe office procedures and
accounting and everything thatgoes into office work at a
manufacturing facility.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Awesome.
So what does your company dospecifically and why would you
want to get involved in the CTEofferings and get involved with
the school system?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Well, mdt stands for Manufacturing and Design
Technology, so the name prettymuch tells both sides of the
story.
We are a very strongengineering company.
We have several engineers,mechanical engineers, and
they're capable of drawing anddesigning and engineering
(06:24):
anything.
We have many programs.
We have 3D modeling programs,which are the same that NASA
uses and the shipyards use, andthese are really critical in
making parts, not just in twodimensions on paper, but you can
see them and how they work andhow the parts go together in 3D
modeling.
So we have that capability andthen behind it comes
(06:47):
manufacturing.
So we don't just say here'swhat you can make, what somebody
else can make, we can make it.
So we have the strength in bothareas and one of the big
advantages to all of ourcustomers is that they come with
drawings or designs to buildmachines, which is really our
(07:09):
specialty.
We build machine tools and wecan take it straight to
engineering and say there's aproblem with your design and we
save them money.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
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 theymay not have the same
engineering programs that we do,and so we're capable to do that
.
And then we do precisionmanufacturing.
(07:40):
When we build machines, there'sthousands of parts that go
together, and for the parts togo together and work they have
to be precision, and we can dowithin microns is what the
tolerance that that's likesplitting your hair 10 times so
that these parts can go togetherand build a machine and that it
(08:02):
functions.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
So why the involvement with the school
system?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Well, it was a great evolution really.
We started by getting involvedwith other manufacturing
companies around the entireHampton Roads say we need
machinists, and it was obviousthat the place to start was with
education and the programs thatI grew up with what we called
(08:27):
shop are all gone this time 15,20 years ago everyone wanted to
send their child to university.
It was unanimous they had to goto college or university.
And in the meantime there'sslowly this gap widening for
trade and this career path thatwas no longer available for high
(08:52):
school graduates.
So we brought in theuniversities, the college, tcc,
and we talked and talked andover the years of TCC here in
Chesapeake has restarted themachinist program mechatronics,
electrical engineering and it'slike we've come full circle.
(09:12):
So that's how it evolved fromthe need for the entire area,
all the manufacturers, to lookfor some skilled laborers.
And we looked to the universityand college and they were very
happy.
They're always very happy tohelp us.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Because what helps us helps them.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Sure right, right right, so it's a win-win
situation and that those are thebest.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Right.
So, Lori, tell us how y'all gotthis whole Take a Peak job
shadowing day started.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Thank you.
So luckily last year we werekind of given the go light to go
ahead and move forward withdoing a job shadowing day, and
so I presented it and everybodywas forward that.
Luckily the communicationsdepartment kind of took a spun
on it and called it Take a PeakDay, which I thought was a great
title.
We did reach out to thebusiness connections that we
have in the city to see ifthey'd be interested in hosting
(10:03):
a student for the day, and Ithink a lot of businesses then
were very on board with doingthat.
Initially, when I would go outand talk to companies about
having students come in and do awork-based learning experiences
, sometimes they were a littlehesitant of having students
under 18 come in for a longexperience.
But I think having studentscome in for just the day, a job
shadowing day, was somethingthey were very interested in,
(10:26):
and so last year we did host ourfirst job shadowing day.
We reached out to I believe wehad around 27 businesses outside
of the city of Chesapeake andthen we also had every
department within the city ofChesapeake also hosted a student
, and so we had over 100students last year who
participated.
They were out of school for theday excuse absence, of course
(10:48):
and they went to a place of workand they mentored under someone
learning about the differentjob responsibilities.
Every student that participatedhad to complete an application
prior, and we had a list of allthe different companies that
were gonna be hosting a student,and so students were able to
select different careerinterests they were.
So we tried to place students ina place of business that they
(11:08):
were actually interested in.
So that's where Dacia came in.
We had previously met before afew times.
Jason Ewers, who's ourwork-based learning coordinator
at Deep Creek High School, hadconnected me with Dacia and we
went to a couple of economicdevelopment meetings that she
was at, and Jason and I actuallywent and toured their facility
and learned a lot about theirbusiness and her passion for
(11:30):
wanting to work with us andtheir students, and so she, of
course, said she would have astudent for the day, and that's
where Caden came in.
He had applied and we placed himthere.
He was a student at WesternBranch High School, so he was
there for the day and had agreat experience learning the
hands-on things that go on withthe business.
So we were getting ready to doour second annual job shouting
(11:53):
day right now.
We have students who areapplying.
We have over 100 students whohave already applied.
We have a lot more businesseson board this year because they
had heard about it last year,and I think it's a great way for
businesses to connect withstudents and then students just
to kind of get a day in the lifeof 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 littlebit of your background, and you
said you were a student atWestern Branch.
What made you get involved inthis program?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for having me and
just giving me the time to talkabout all of this.
I just turned 20.
So it's just now starting tokick in for life and a career.
I spent a good chunk of my highschool year or, yeah, high
school at Starbucks, actuallystarted working there, got a
(12:39):
little bit of a understanding onwork and how everything works
together other people workingwith each other, who you don't
like to work with all of thatand honestly, when I heard about
this experience, I had no ideait would take me this far, at
least up until this time, and itwas kind of what I've been
(13:04):
looking for kind of in my wholelife.
Just like I'm a very hands-onkind of person, I kind of have
to see what's wrong and to orderto kind of start figuring out
how to how to fix it.
You know, my uncle was a.
He was an electrician first inTara and um, he was a mechanic
as well on the free time and hewas kind of like the starter who
(13:28):
kind of showed me, you know,like this is how this works and
how everything else works.
And talking more to my parentsand my grandparents, I found out
that my great grandfather wasactually a machinist inside the
uh, norfolk yard.
So it was just kind of like goodfeeling when I found that out.
You know it's just saw how hislife turned out, you know it was
(13:51):
pretty good for him and so Ijust I find it kind of
comforting in a way, just toknow, you know, this is kind of
my way to connect with him, seehow he started it and see where
he got and just to see how muchthe machinist life is actually
changed and, uh, gracious, Idon't even know, probably 30
(14:12):
years, even five years from thepast.
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, Iimagine 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 selectgoing 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, Iguess there.
But she sent on an email to thestudents and I had filled out
that Google form that Lori wastalking about earlier and kind
of selecting what you wanted todo, kind of what you wanted to
look into.
I didn't get to choose MDT, Ijust kind of put in you know,
(14:58):
metalworking, I was looking fora welding experience, but that
was taken up by the time.
But I had gotten another emaila few weeks later saying that I
was accepted for a job shadowingevent over at MDT and they were
excited to have me over thatover here and give me a day in
the life of what they go throughfor the amount of time that I
(15:25):
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 Daciaand the other office worker, and
they are seeing how the moneyis spent and who gets.
How do you ship things out, whowe go to ship it out to save
money for the customer and forus as well.
(15:53):
Seeing in the warehouse howeverything was turned and taken
from this big, big pile of metalinto something that is used for
a much bigger machine andreally just how everything is
just kind of put together, howthis whole company runs.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, we were making lists of things for Caden to go
through every portion of themanufacturing process how the
raw metal comes in and you knowshipping and receiving, and then
to the machines, the differenttypes of machines, how we can
see going through the entireprocess.
And I felt it important toobecause there's a lot of
(16:35):
positions in any company, notjust machinists.
So we also took him through theoffice to see how you buy the
metal, how you pay for the metal, how you ship the metal,
because there's a lot ofopportunities in every single
career path that you go down,not just one.
There's a team of people thatwork together to get something
(16:58):
completed.
And just opening your eyes andknowing that, hey, I want to do
manufacturing, but that actualposition is a little bit more
interesting to me.
So I like to show them all 10positions all 10 possibilities
and though you're inmanufacturing, making parts,
making machines you may be doingjust something a little bit
(17:19):
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 MDTnow?
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Right now I am actually looking at the TCC
program for machinists andwhat's all that entailed right
now being as little experience Ihave and not being able to
fully understand what thecomputers and all the computers
on the machines that you knowwhat they're saying.
But other than that I'm gettinga lot of the experience working
(17:53):
with some of these otherco-workers you know, taking off
like sharp corners of metalsthat have been come out of the
machine that the machinecouldn't get and just kind of
doing the little things but alsobig, bigger things that will
come to a lot more fruition downthe road once you know I have
(18:13):
more experience and moreunderstanding behind the whole
machines than after school atTCC.
Stacia's actually given me acouple ends to the machinist
program and what all is entailedin it the curriculum and seeing
how it's going to possibly playout.
Other than that, pretty muchthe same every day come in, find
(18:35):
what to do, sweep up a littlebit, keep it clean, yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, that's one thing we really wanted to push
with the job sharing day sostudents could really, like
Dacia mentioned, get into abusiness and see everything
there is to do, because I dothink students sometimes think
one or you know to have one ortwo careers I think they want to
do until they're able to go inand actually experience it for a
day, or even a longerwork-based learning experience.
(19:02):
They don't really know all theopportunities that are there.
And that's really what CT wantsto do.
We want to show students theopportunities they have and let
them go through some careerawareness and exploration so
they can go into the type ofcareer they want, whether
they're going to college orcareer, because everybody that
goes to college has to come outwith a career.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So either way, Right, yeah, you know we've had
several conversations withpeople 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, tonow, probably the biggest change
that I've seen is the explosionof opportunities, especially in
(19:42):
the last really five or 10years.
Just an explosion ofopportunities for kids through
these CTE programs.
And I think you know theeconomy sometimes drives those
things, but I've seen firsthandhow these CTE programs motivate
kids to graduate from highschool so they can get into the
career field that they're in.
So it's very valuable both tothe kids and the businesses and
(20:05):
the community and the economy.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, like even on the last episode with Mr Joseph,
the principal at Oscar SmithHigh School.
He was talking about how givingkids the opportunity.
Hey, there's a Norfolk NavalShipyard, but the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard has a marketing team.
They have all these differentopportunities that you might not
think of, and so that's reallynice to see that Dacia.
When you took Kate in, youshowed them hey, we might be
(20:28):
working on this machine, but wehave accounting department, we
have the design team.
So that's the opportunitiesthat you're talking about.
That now our students are awareof.
I mean, like I didn't think ofthat when I was in school, I
mean in the past five or soyears.
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 thesedifferent trades I mean in the
CTE programs that y'all have isa 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 walkedinto 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'rereally making the most of a very
old facility down there withpartnerships and they're still
getting it done and they'restill very passionate kids and
(21:22):
passionate teachers down there.
Obviously, CTE is on aninnovation move to offer more
and more and more creativeprograms, 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 workingreally hard.
Dr Kitchens over there andJoyce Billman is the workforce
coordinator there and she does agreat job with students.
As far as placing them, one ofthe big initiatives, of course,
is to expand that building andto have a larger building to be
able to offer more programsthere.
(21:56):
I think also in our CTEprograms and our high schools we
offer them at all seven highschools and at all 10 middle
schools.
Our CTE programs and I think alot of people don't realize some
of these programs are meant forstudents who can go right into
the workforce, but we also offercourses such as accounting and
engineering.
Students can leave school withindustry certifications that
(22:17):
they can take with them tocollege or into a career.
We also are hoping to expandwork-based learning and that's
one of the big goals that I'mreally 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 Daciamentioned, there's that
workforce gap and so the bestway to do is to come to
education and so really to tryto get businesses on board with
(22:39):
having students come in that areunder 18 and kind of thinking
outside the box.
But businesses who do havestudents come in really see the
benefit of it and because we'retapping into these resources, we
really need these kids to knowwhat kind of career they wanna
go into and sometimes once theygraduate from high school we
lose them.
But really getting those 16, 17year old kids in a work-based
(23:02):
learning experience and havingthat hands-on experience will
let them know all the differentcareer opportunities out there.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, for sure.
Kayden, what is something thatyou would say to maybe some
students who are beginning tomake decisions about their
future, or maybe some futuregraduates?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I would say honestly just be yourself.
Don't let other people tell youhow to live your life and take
the opportunities that areplaced in front of you, whether
that be in a small aspect inschool or even after high school
.
Life is full of chances and I'mfiguring that out right now.
(23:40):
Myself is just the freshgraduate.
But if you have the opportunityto take to the programs and job
shadowing or the CTE programs,take as much as that time as you
can, get contacts from peoplewho work there, get contacts for
other people and take advantageof the technology that we have
(24:03):
today and put it to use and justtake it to a point to where you
can do something with your lifeand make you happy.
I would say I'm not a collegeperson, I'm not very much for
school, but I am for school whenit has something that I enjoy
and something that is hands on.
(24:24):
Take those chances and seewhere it takes you.
It'll take you to some crazyplaces.
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 canget the word out to students and
families about theseopportunities, I think the
better off we'll be in the notjust us, not just the businesses
, but the kids I mean the kidstheir futures really can be
completely changed throughparticipating in some of these
(24:58):
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'sall.
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 theChesapeake Public Schools
podcast.
Feel free to visit us atcpschoolscom forward slash
amplified for any questions orcomments, and make sure to
follow us wherever you get yourpodcast.
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