The career and technical education program will be adding new courses next school year. The program involves classes that will expose students to careers and help them prepare for them.

“Students will have an opportunity to do hands-on learning, do labs which are an integral part of career and technical education, practice Industry skills, and to become certified with an industry certification,” Head of the CTE Department Jessica Smith said.

The CTE program adds classes based on if the industry has a four year degree plan or a graduation degree. This ensures that students will have experience in what they choose to go into. 

“I am excited to continue my classes for the upcoming year,” sophomore Gael Hernandez said. “I think having the opportunity to have an industry based certificate will benefit all of the students. Sometimes people don’t have college in their mind so this is a thing students can lean on straight out of school.”

The CTE program offers a multitude of classes such as floral design, principles of business, culinary arts, and entrepreneurship. 

“I teach the career cluster of hospitality and tourism,” culinary teacher Cindy Jones said.  “We also offer practicum culinary which students can take in Conroe High School. Our days are pretty busy so we prepare a day before to meet time constraints. The following day we come in, get the stations ready, cook, and clean everything within 45 minutes.”

The CTE department has put an emphasis on two goals that they wish to achieve for the upcoming years.

“One goal is to have ‘completers’  that means a student that is staying in a pathway taking the same sequence of courses for four years straight,” Smith said. “Our second goal is for every student in a career and technology class to walk away from high school with industry certification, a certification offered by industry agency that a student qualifies for because a teacher exposed and evaluated them to the industry skills well enough so that they were able to be certified.”

The CTE program has been able to achieve a Moorehead promotion. The ambassador program consists of students of every pathway. The students chosen are handpicked from each career and technology class. They create a booth at the school to promote their pathway. They have also been holding department meetings in order to come up with more effective strategies. 

“We hope students can see the value of our program and look forward to seeing their wonderful faces in our classes next year,” coach Becky Short said.