Sunset P-TECH News
January Edition
Principal's Corner
Patience is the key element of success
- See your goal
- Understand the obstacles
- Create a positive mental picture
- Clear your mind of self doubt
- Embrace the challenge
- Stay on track
- Show the world you can do it
Every student, teacher or staff member of Sunset P-TECH must trust the process. Success does not come overnight there must be a slow steady commitment to the goal. What are your goals? Have you written them down? Are you working towards your success daily?
Our Busy Classrooms
Everyday teachers must commit to creating lessons that will support the learning of students. P-TECH is a unique experience that calls for our teachers to be more creative in how they present their lessons. Our students must maintain being a high school student, a college student, volunteers and hopefully interns to Fortune 500 companies. This takes work and each lesson and decision must be intentional and purposeful.
Financial Literacy Workshop for Freshman
As part of our program, we of course prepare students for high school, college and their future careers. We also do all we can to prepare them to become community involve citizens and financial responsible citizens. A strong foundation of financial literacy can help support various life goals, such as saving for education or retirement, using debt responsibly, and running a business. Key aspects to financial literacy include knowing how to create a budget, plan for retirement, manage debt, and track personal spending (Fernando, 2022).
We want to arm our students with as many resources as possible to ensure they are successful upon completion of the program and as they journey through adulthood. One of our engagement partners, Carter Plaster with Texas Bank Exchange began laying the foundation by teaching the students about budgeting.
VIP Experience
1st Graduate with a Bachelors Degree
Time to celebrate. We have our first graduate with a bachelor's degree. Cristian Acosta graduated in our first cohort of students in 2021. This was especially challenging because our first cohort had to spend their final year online due to COVID. Cristian comes with a host of skills that he gained while in the program. He is bilingual in English and Spanish. He was part of the Teacher Education pathway. During his time with us he volunteered during COVID to participate in the Dallas County Health and Human Services Block Walk to educate and assist in registering citizens for the COVID vaccine. He was a part of our Recruitment Team and assisted with interviews. Mr. Acosta graduated from Sunset High School with our first cohort to receive their high school diploma and their Associates from Dallas College. He continued his education at University of North Texas at Dallas, our college partner, in hopes of receiving his bachelors degree. In December of 2022, Cristian graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Spanish. He has decided to return to UNT Dallas to get his Masters degree. While he became heavily involved in student life by joining a fraternity and being an active member of the Call Me Mister program designed to recruit more men of color into the field of teaching. We are so proud of your accomplishments.
Volunteering in Action
As part of the Sunset P-TECH Early College High School Program, ALL P-TECH students are required to obtain 40 hours of community service each school year. The purpose for this is to assist our students with understanding that they have an obligation to not only better themselves, but all better their community through this opportunity with Sunset P-TECH. The act of service for others is the ultimate show of true humanity.
Benefits of volunteering #1: Volunteering connects you to others
One of the better-known benefits of volunteering is the impact on the community. Unpaid volunteers are often the glue that holds a community together. Volunteering allows you to connect to your community and make it a better place. Even helping out with the smallest tasks can make a real difference to the lives of people, animals, and organizations in need. And volunteering is a two-way street: It can benefit you and your family as much as the cause you choose to help. Dedicating your time as a volunteer helps you make new friends, expand your network, and boost your social skills.
Benchmark 6 of the Texas Education Agency P-TECH Blueprint states:
The P-TECH shall provide layered social and emotional support to the students as needed, such as: a. Connections to social services
b. Parent outreach and involvement opportunities
c. A structured program of community service to promote community involvement; and
d. Skill building instruction for students, such as time management, study skills, collaboration and interpersonal relationship skills
How to Track Your Community Service Hours:
There are volunteer sheets in the P-TECH office for you to keep track of the hours. Each time a student volunteers please record the information on the Volunteer Tracker, they are required to get a picture of at the event with them in it as proof of their service. You can attach it to your Google Form entry. If you have a problem with the form please email me at trobison@dallasisd.org. Seniors don't wait until the last minute. Remember P-TECH is your last signature on your senior checkout.
Samua Moreno
Jessica Hernandez
Sarah Flores
Volunteering at Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe
Arturo Salazar's Grinchmas Program
Each year our P-TECH program participates in an annual community project. This year our students partnered with Arturo Salazar Elementary for their Grinchmas Celebration. Sunset P-TECH students created flyers advertising the Toy Drive, collecting and dividing the toys and finally delivering and distributing the toys. It was great working with Salazar and being able to see the joy in each child's eyes as they picked a toy from the 475 donated by Sunset -TECH students.
The Goal
The Work
The Final Day
The Work
The Program
The Work
Senior Activities
We recognize the journey can be long as students navigate between high school, college and workplace activities and requirements. So Mr. Spencer, P-TECH Principal, has made it a point of having activities dedicated to motivating the seniors to keep pushing. We know the last leg gets daunting so Ms. Palomares and Ms. Salazar, the P-TECH senior sponsors, work to come up with fun activities to let them know we are proud of them. Last week we had a Friday activity in the cafeteria. The seniors returned back to the main campus early to have Corn in a cup that was donated by parent Ms. Rebeca Rocha. And they received P-TECH t-shirts. The seniors have also had Snow Cones Day (last semester when it was hot) and Sunset hosted a Senior Lock-In at The Main Event.
UNT Dallas Skating into the New Semester
Corn in a Cup
UNT Dallas
Resume & LinkedIn Workshop at UNT Dallas
As our seniors are preparing to finalize their journey with us and enter into college and careers, we require every senior to have a working resume that is reviewed by professionals and a LinkedIn account for their professional networking. On Tuesday, January 18th UNT Dallas Career Services hosted a "Think Tank Tuesday: Resume and LinkedIn Workshop". All UNT Dallas seniors were required to attend. They will spend the second semester perfecting their LinkedIn accounts and building their connections. Career Services also allowed our students to take professional headshots that they will add to their LinkedIn accounts. So if you see an invitation from our fabulous seniors please accept so they can see how to navigate through a professional platform and network. Thank you UNT Dallas Career Services!!
Qualities and Skills Important to Employers
- Ability to work in a team structure
- Ability to verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization
- Ability to make decisions and solve problems
- Ability to obtain and process information
- Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work
- Ability to analyze quantitative data
- Technical knowledge related to the job
- Proficiency with computer software programs
- Ability to create and/or edit written reports
- Ability to sell or influence others
(2012 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook Survey)