Students gain real-world experience

By Mary-Justine Lanyon

From developing the characters and designing a video game to learning about fire behavior and how to handle hoses and nozzles, students in the CTE (Career Technical Education) classes at Rim of the World High School can prepare to head out into the work world or continue their education in a variety of fields.

Members of the Rim of the World Educational Foundation board have in the past toured the CTE classes annually. Between the pandemic and last winter’s snowstorms, that tour was put off until a few weeks ago. Several board members were joined by Principal Brian Willemse and Superintendent Dr. Paul Sevillano as Stephanie Phillips, the CTE coordinator, took them from classroom to classroom.

They arrived at the TV and Video Production classroom just in time to watch three students transmitting the Rim Daily Bulletin. Other students were preparing for Rim Today – the news magazine that is produced by the students and includes news, weather, sports and skits (to view past productions, visit rimtoday.tv). 

While the group did not tour the Game Design class, instructor Jared Powell noted he has two students who have been in the class for four years. Working in a team, the students brainstorm and come up with a theme for a game, design it on a board, develop the characters and the setting, then test it out.

The students in Rob Wilson’s Graphic Design class were working on designing business cards. They had made the decals motorists can see on the sides of the school district’s transportation vans. 

Every student, Wilson told the group, designs and prints their own shirt. They have printed “Rim” shirts that are sold in the student store and were about to start screen printing shorts for Mountain High School and Rim Virtual Academy. 

As the tour group approached the welding shop, they stopped to appreciate the camping stove students had just finished. Phillips was proud to show the Rim Ed group photos of the welding shop as it had looked. With grant funds, Rim was able to install new welding booths. The students unpacked the crates and erected the new booths. By building the new shop, the students now have ownership of it.

Two students demonstrated the augmented welders – simulators that enable the students to practice and perfect their welding skills without wasting the expensive consumables. These simulators save the district thousands of dollars in materials.

Teacher Pete Ferrara told the group that his advanced students help the beginners learn their skills.

Ferrara then took the group next door to Construction Trades. In addition to building sheds, the students are working on new signs for Heaps Peak Arboretum. In the class, they learn to read blueprints and also learn basic plumbing, electrical, masonry, concrete, flooring, drywall, carpentry and roofing skills.

The group was fascinated by the driving simulators in Automotive Technology. For the past year, students have been able to experience driving semi trucks, fire trucks and ambulances. As a student “drives,” they may suddenly have a deer pop up in front of them. As they merge onto a highway, they have to be aware of the other vehicles around them.

One of the Rim Ed board members was quick to sit at one of the simulators and try her hand at double-clutching the semi truck – a skill teacher Dave Meigide said is tough to master.

Meigide then showed the group the race car he started working on when he was a long-term substitute teacher. It took him and his students five years to complete it. He noted there are only two other high schools with race cars. He takes the car to three or four races a year; he is joined by three or four of his advanced students, who act as the pit crew.

Students interested in entering the healthcare industry have the advantage of getting some real-world experience in the ambulance simulator and emergency room set-up, which features industry equipment. 

The available courses include Medical Core, Emergency Medical Responder and Fire Technology.

“A lot of students,” Phillips said, “go from Fire Technology and EMR into those fields.”

The Rim of the World Unified School District, Phillips noted, pays her salary as well as the salaries of the CTE instructors. “Everything else down to the furniture,” she said, “is purchased with funds from grants and donations.” 

Phillips has worked diligently and been successful in obtaining grants to fund the simulators and the new welding equipment. 

When the waste management company Anthem Services called Virage Simulation in Canada to talk with them about their driving simulators, Virage told them there were two in their backyard – at Rim of the World High School. Anthem made arrangements to come to the school to try them. “They were blown away by their realism,” Phillips said. And they were astonished that a high school had them.

Currently Rim offers 16 CTE courses in six industry sectors.