CATEC January 2022 Newsletter
Stay Up-to-Date on All the Things Happening at CATEC
Keep In Touch
There are lots of ways to know what is happening at CATEC. Keep in touch with us to know what our students are doing and all the ways we are working to improve our local workforce.
High School
- Call us (434) 973-4461
- Visit us www.catec.org
- Download our app CATEC, VA
- Follow us at CATECHighSchool (Facebook), CATEC High School (YouTube), @CATEChs (Twitter), @catechighschool (Instagram), @catechighschool (TikTok)
Adult Education and Apprenticeship
Are you an adult interested in continuing your education? CATEC's Adult Education and Apprenticeship Program offers +100 in-person and online classes. Scholarships are available. Keep in touch with this program to learn more:
- Call us (434) 973-1945
- Visit us: https://www.catec.org/page/adult-education-and-apprenticeship-programs
- Follow us at CATEC Adult Education and Apprenticeships (Facebook), @CATEC_Adult (Twitter), @catec_adult_education (Instagram)
- Read through Course Catalog Options
Director's Message
Happy New Year!
Dear CATEC Families,
Happy 2022! January felt like a short month with so much winter weather that prohibited us from being in the building. Semester 1ended earlier this month and we are now in Semester 2.
Students should begin registering for classes for the 2022-2023 school year soon, through their base schools. We hope all of our 2021-2022 students return to CATEC for another school year, whether to complete a program sequence, or to pursue another course that compliments their current CATEC class. CATEC is a nurturing environment that provides professional training and allow students to graduate with zero debt! With an increase of academic course offerings, both embedded and pull out, CATEC is constantly striving to decrease barriers for students to attend our school.
February is Career and Technical Education Month. We look forward to celebrating CTE Month with our students so be on the lookout for fun activities happening around our building next month!
Sincerely,
Stephanie Carter
CATEC Director
Schoolwide Information
Calendar Dates
February 4- Technical Eats! Food Bus Pop Up Soup Event, CATEC parking lot 11am-2pm
February 11- SkillsUSA District Competition
February 18- Teacher Work Day, CATEC Closed
February 25- CATEC Olympics
February 27- Technical Eats! Food Bus, CATEC parking lot 11am-2pm
Newsworthy
- CATEC's New Commercial!
- ACPS's EMT Program's Medical Emergency Simulator Demo
- Cosmetology Program Video
- Community Conversations with Ms. Carter, NBC29
- Emergency Food Network Collaboration, Charlottesville Tomorrow
School Counseling Services
Ms. Wilson, CATEC's School Counselor, is on-site daily to assist students with scheduling issues, college dual-enrollment registration, and individual needs. Ms. Wilson is currently out of the building on maternity leave. Please welcome our school counseling intern Tessie King, who will be providing student support until Ms. Wilson's return. Ms. King can be reached by email at tking@k12albemarle.org and 434-973-4461.
CATEC Students are Professional: Workplace Readiness
In January, CATEC students focused on WRS #9 Customer Service Orientation and WRS #21 Reading and Writing.
CATEC Academics
CATEC offers academic courses that are both embedded in trade curricula and offered as stand-alone courses. Taking trade and academic courses at CATEC allows students more flexibility with their scheduling as well as learning class materials in authentic ways.
English 12 & Government: Megan Panek and David Topper
In what ways are social media sites like Facebook having a negative impact on our American society? In what ways is our internet “polluted”? Students are seeking answers to these questions and researching possible solutions in our new Internet Pollution project. Once they wrap up the project in a few weeks, they will dive into learning more about the legislative branch of government both at the state and federal level.
English 10 & 11 embedded in Culinary 1 and Cosmetology I: Megan Panek
Students began our Career Exploration unit. Students began by taking a personality test and using their results the determine their workplace values – those things they need in a job to be comfortable and happy. They will research possible jobs that have their workplace values, and ultimately, narrow to one job they want to dig deeper into. To help them narrow their search, two college and career specialists, Cay Lee Ratliff (from Albemarle High School) & Scott Swanson (from Charlottesville High School), will join us on February 2nd to tell students about programs currently offered at PVCC. Student will then finish the project by conducting an e-mail interview with someone who currently works at the job they chose and write a reflection explaining what they learned about the job and whether it’s the right fit for them!
Economics and Personal Finance: David Topper
Students spent January focusing on the benefits and pitfalls of credit, looking at how people get credit, how they get scammed, and how to avoid making poor decisions when given credit.
Geometry embedded into Building Trades: Jake Sills
Geometry students just completed work on a graphic design project. Students learned about rotations, reflections, symmetry, translations, and dilations in Geometry. With this info they looked up a favorite brand/logo and applied those different movements. Finally they recreated their own logo for the brand and made an advertisement. In a couple weeks students are going to start working on a Similarity project where they have to take a picture of themselves standing next to a tall object/building and compare the heights in the picture to the actual heights. Finally, they will create their own similarity word problem.
Profile of a CATEC Student
Rahmed Hamilton, Culinary Arts I
Rahmed Hamilton is a Culinary Arts I student who came to CATEC to try something new. The Charlottesville High School junior was interested in improving his cooking and baking skills and can now carry his newfound skills into a restaurant kitchen to work as a line cook while he pursues is career goals at PVCC. Rahmed hopes to use his love of video games to study gaming technology in college. He loves reading and watching anime and enjoys baking cookies in Culinary Arts.
Allen Ragland, Building Trades
Allen Ragland has been taking advantage of all CATEC has to offer for the past two years. He entered the Building Trades program in the 2020-2021 school year and almost immediately began an internship at Dependable Heating and Air. Allen's older brother attended CATEC, and together with their father, these CATEC graduates run the HVAC company. He says he attended CATEC so he could earn high school credit while he worked and earned income. Additionally, he says he is able to get all the certifications he needs to earn his license. In May 2021, Allen participated in CATEC's School-to-Work Signing Day and returned as a junior to enroll in another year at CATEC.
Automotive Body Technology students work together in the lab.
Automotive Body Technology 3 student Dylan Cosgrove works on his panel.
Automotive Technology students use PPE to stay safe in the lab.
Learn More about CATEC's Automotive Body Technology Program
Automotive Body Technology Across the U.S.
In January each year, Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center (CATEC) thanks our local automotive body repair professionals who not only help our community drive safely every day, but also work with CATEC’s Automotive Body Technology program as Advisory Board members and provide job shadow, internship, and work experiences for our programs’ students. The National Auto Body Council celebrates Collision Industry Week each January. The week highlight the goal of improving the image of collision industry professionals and ensuring the industry is recognized as essential in serving communities.
Automotive Body Technology Curriculum
CATEC’s high school Automotive Body Technology program covers competencies that help students to enter the Automotive Body industry after high school, and sometimes even before graduation. Students are taught non-structural analysis, damage repair, welding, and estimating. They work with a variety of materials, using metal finishing and automotive body filling techniques to prepare surfaces and repair panels. Students extensively practice shop safety and gain career skills through workplace readiness training.
Work-Based Learning Opportunities
Students have opportunities to earn high school credit and income while attending CATEC when they enter into internships with auto body shops in Charlottesville. The program currently has three students participating in job shadowing experiences at Flow Collison Center of Charlottesville, Brown’s Collison Center, and Masters Auto Body.
Industry Certifications
Automotive Body Technology students take I-CAR Professional Development Program classes throughout the school year, earning industry credentials as they learn. Students can earn up to 37 certifications, making students more marketable when beginning their careers. Students build their knowledge as well as their resumes. Students are required to earn 14 of these credentials. I-CAR is an international not-for-profit organization focused on providing information, knowledge and skills required to perform complete, safe and quality repairs. CATEC is now a Fixed Training Site for I-CAR, as well. Additionally, students can receive four Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications. ASE industry testing is specially designed to evaluate and certify students who are studying in the automotive service industry.
Program Donations
CATEC’s Automotive Body Technology program has received a lot of new equipment over the last few years.
- In 2021, the program was given 5 MIG 220v welders, which will be shared with the CATEC Adult Education program.
- In the 2020, the program received 3M products ranging from polishers to sanders from The Collision Repair Education Foundation through Inter-Industry Conference on Automotive Collision Repair (I-CAR).
- In 2019, Charlottesville Automotive donated 3M respirators so students can continue safety precautions while practicing their hands-on learning. The Collision Repair Education Foundation grant program, through I-CAR generously donated thousands of dollars’ worth of 3M supplies to the Automotive Body Repair program in 2019 as well.
- In 2018, the program received a $4,000 Collision Repair grant to purchase new tools and shop supplies. The program was also awarded a new Induction Glass Blaster from the Collision Repair Grant/Induction Innovation Award.
- In 2017, the program received an $11,000 Collision Repair grant to buy the class laptops and carts. The program has used the laptops to study their I-CAR curriculum.
Adult Education
CATEC’s Adult Education Program offers a two-semester Automotive Body Technology course, Introduction to Collision Repair and Surface Preparation and Refinishing. This course is an instructor-led, demonstrator format with student “hands on” participation. Over the course of the two programs, students learn the fundamentals of auto body repair work. The program is offered to adults who want to begin a new career in the automotive industry or who are car hobbyists looking to work on their own vehicles.
Continuing Education and Career Forecast
Upon entering the workforce, automotive body repair workers will be expected to continue their educations through industry-specific training programs. When students graduate from CATEC, they can continue their educations by attending Virginia higher institutions of learning. Students can attend Germanna Community College to become Automotive Diagnosticians or Technicians. At Reynolds Community College students can study to become Diesel Mechanics. And at Old Dominion University they can earn a bachelor of science degree in Motorsports Engineering Technology. Virginia has a projected job growth of 13% for automotive body technicians.
Congratulations Auto Body Technology Students For Winning CATEC's Winter Spirit Week Door Competition
Meet the Instructor: Ronald Moore
CATEC
Email: scarter@k12albemarle.org
Website: www.catec.org
Location: 1000 Rio Road East, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Phone: 434-973-4461
Facebook: facebook.com/CATECHighSchool
Twitter: @CATEChs