Students, parents and the community flocked to the Veterans Memorial District on Thursday, Feb. 21 to learn about Clovis Unified’s Career Technical Education programs.
The event provided an opportunity for prospective students to speak with currently enrolled students, teachers and counselors.
“We want an opportunity for our families, our kids to come out and be under one roof on one night so they can learn about Career Technical Education in the district,” Chuck Sandoval, director of CTE said.
Sandoval said all of the high schools in Clovis take part in CTE.
“We have 18 pathways in the district,” Sandoval said. “We have five comprehensive high schools and we have CART that also offers programs.”
The 18 CTE pathways were represented at the first annual CTE night on Feb. 21. The CTE programs cover various courses such as agriculture, computer science, criminology, construction, medicine and media.
CUSD Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell said the district’s CTE programs comply with the state CTE regulations, requiring certain certifications and completed courses the students have to go through.
“It’s a pretty rigorous program for us to adhere to it,” O’Farrell said.
The students from the five Clovis high schools can go to any of the programs at any of the schools.
“If a Clovis West student wants to attend the construction program at Clovis High for two periods a day, they can do that,” O’Farrell said.
Clovis East High School senior Rahel Kebede took part in CTE Night as part of the Allied Health ROP.
Kebede said CTE Night is important because it helps her get more students into the Allied Health ROP and also helps students get a better idea of which career they want to pursue.
“I know there are a lot of students who are interested in the medical field, but at the same time they’re not sure if they want to do it because they don’t want to interact with patients,” Kebede said. “Here in the career field we actually get to go to the hospital, so I think it would be cool for them to know now rather than later in their life.”