I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Tom Hall, and I'm the Career & Technical Education (CTE) Director for the YKSD. Over my career, I've been a teacher in Rural Alaska, a grant administrator for the Department of Labor, and a CTE director for the Fairbanks School District. However, for most of my professional life, I've been a residential home builder in Fairbanks.

Last fall the YKSD was awarded a large grant called Interior CHOICES Project. Running and organizing this grant will be a big part of my new position. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible over the next few months.

On February 25th - March 1st, students participated in the statewide Educators Rising Alaska Virtual Conference and Competition. This was a great opportunity for students across the state to network and met other students interested in education as a career, learn from professionals in the field, take part in workshops, take college placement tests, and participate in education related competitions. The conference started with two days of competitions followed by a day of placement testing, and then two days of leadership activities and keynote speakers. During these last two days participants heard a motivational message from American Ninja Warrior Nick Hanson, representatives from the university system, and Commissioner Dr. Michael Johnson.

A big congratulations goes to Jemima Verebasaga, a Juneau Raven Home School student, for getting 5th place in the Children's Literature for K-3rd grade! She wrote an amazing children's book, "The Search for the Violin's Strings", targeted to this age group! The story follows the Violin as it tries to locate its missing strings! As Jemima placed 5th in the Alaska Educators Rising State Conference, she qualifies to participate in the virtual National Educators Rising Conference on June 24-27, 2021.

The Alaska LIVE Job Shadow events are continuing, with the most recent one focusing on Health Care Occupations. The Zoom recording for the latest event – Health Care Occupations is available to Watch Here

The Alaska LIVE Job Shadows events have reached so many students across Alaska. To date, here are some reach highlights:

· 210 registrations have been processed for:

o Individuals

o Classrooms

o Teachers sharing the event through their own Zoom link

o Homeschoolers

o WIOA Partners

o Postsecondary students

o Department of Corrections

o Tribal Organizations

o Job Centers

o Industry Partners

· 28 school districts have joined – with multiple schools and villages represented

· Student and classroom questions came in through

o Zoom Chat

o Pear Deck participants through Google Slides

Past Alaska LIVE Job Shadow events have featured the Oil & Gas Industry and the Construction Industry.

Foundation Health Partners (FHP) in Fairbanks is offering a new summer High School Internship program. This pilot program will start at FHP in May! See the attached flyer!

Application period opens on Monday, March 8th.

· Interns must be a rising sophomore to current year graduate

· 5-15 hours per week, can arrange hours around summer jobs

· Interns can apply for one or both sessions, potential to intern all summer in two different departments if availability matches up

· Every effort will be made to match students up with departments that match their career goals

Participating departments include:

· Radiology

· Sterile Processing

· Cardiac Rehab

· Emergency Department

· Denali Center

· IT/Informatics

· Procedures

· Lab

· Ultrasound

· Human Resources

· Health Information Management

· Outpatient Rehab

· Respiratory Therapy

Juniors and seniors who are interested in taking the ACT or SAT should sign up for this free class. Please see the flyer below for more information and a link to sign up.

If you are interested in a career in construction, Alaska Works Partnership has lots of information! Check out their website and the attached flyer to get more information. They have workshops, information on apprenticeship programs, and much more.

Students in Minto are participating in a Woods class. The students are learning to harvest and use trees to get wood and then make projects. Students are creating their own projects by choosing from a list of 35 different ideas.

One of the projects is a to scale desk top pool table. The student has taken the math, dimensions, and ratios and figured out the size all the different parts and pieces need to be when using 1 inch marbles as the pool balls.

In Ruby, this semester students are learning how to use the lathe and turn bowls. Students are using spalted birch, which is birth that has started to rot and the wood is very punky.

During this multistep process including wood stabilization, students start with some really punky birch wood. They put it in the vacuum chamber and add the cactus juice. The next step is to vacuum out the air in the chamber. Once this is done, the wood is put in the oven and dry the wood out. Next students turn the wood on the lathe. This project students are connecting ideas to science by learning how a vacuum chamber operates.

We are excited to say the YKSD's Career & Technical Education (CTE) Department is growing and will be offering students more opportunities to prepare for careers! The contact information for our department is as below:

Tom Hall, CTE Director

907-374-9437

thall@yksd.com

Patty Woody, CTE Coordinator

907-374-9435

pwoody@yksd.com

Bob Hawkins, CTE Specialist

907-374-9496

bhawkins@yksd.com

CTE Department

cte@yksd.com