Vocational training at the high school level has a new look, and a variety of programs are being implemented to help connect students with opportunities — while also connecting the community with students who have marketable skills.

“The goal is to get students immersed in the community and let the community know that students have the skill sets they need,” said Nicole Lyons, Ph.D., Mt. Hope’s new College and Career Coordinator.

Ms. Lyons grew up in Bristol and graduated from Mt. Hope in 2006. She was most recently a member of the administration at Davies Career and Technical High School, when she learned that Mt. Hope was advertising for this newly-created position. She saw it as a great opportunity to reconnect with her community, and help to build those same community connections she found so valuable growing up here.

“I was immersed in the community growing up, and so I grew up with a strong sense of belonging,” she said. “That’s really influenced how I approach education.”

Serving all students

The building blocks of the Mt. Hope Career Technical Education program were in place when Ms. Lyons arrived; she has been serving as a coordinator, bringing them all together to package them as programs and pathways, in disciplines including engineering, business and finance, marketing, bio science, information technology, and construction.

Unlike vocational/technical programs in years past that suggested a student choose a path that forked between a trade or a college education, these programs acknowledge that in the real world, a student may get a job in a field right out of high school, then decide down the road to continue their education.

“We want to provide what a student needs so they have access to college later if they want it,” Ms. Lyons said. “We want to meet the needs of each student so they have what they need to graduate, but also have the background so they can go on if they change their plan.”

“College isn’t for all, but all should have access to the minimum requirements needed to choose that path.”

Each pathway has opportunities for students to get entry level jobs as well as qualifications they can take to a deeper level of study in college. A marketing and finance pathway can lead to any of a number of CTE board credentials that will make a student marketable right out of high school — or it can lead to a four-year degree followed by an MBA. Or, it can do both.

Community partnerships

Part of Ms. Lyons’ job has been reaching out to corporate community partners to help create opportunities for students to work with these companies. Existing partners represent a range of industries and company profiles, from small businesses to municipalities to large defense contractors, including, TPI Composites, General Dynamics, Town of Bristol, Newport Renewables, Bryan Hoffman-Finance, Town of Warren, Greysmith Companies, Charles Millard Inc., Electric Boat, East Bay Chamber of Commerce, Michelle Hughes, CPA, Environmental Protection Agency, Hereshoff Marine Museum, Saint Gobain, Raytheon, Amgen, and C.B. Construction.

Nathan Lima of Bristol is one Mt. Hope student who is taking his skills directly to the workforce. “I have always been interested in construction,” he said. “I started in wood shop, where we learned about drafting and design, some robotics and residential wiring.” Furniture-making was another favorite class. He had been working recently for a company that builds outdoor patios and landscaping features, but after graduation he is going to become an HVAC system apprentice with Gem Plumbing, which will serve as a sponsor and mentor as Nathan furthers his education in the field through coursework at CCRI.

For Ben DiChiappari of Bristol, who has long been interested in building, design, and construction, engineering coursework included design and machine work as well as principles of engineering — work that ranged from hands-on creation, to physics. An internship at Water Rower in Warren gave him experience with welding, CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and coding.

“It was amazing,” he said — and it inspired him to study engineering in college, which he will be doing at Virginia Tech, beginning this fall. About the Mt. Hope program, he credits it with helping him focus his goals. “”Whether you know what you want to do or not, this gives you the opportunity to see what you like, and apply it in the real world.”

Work-based learning opportunities

Pathways that lead to internships and mentorships with local corporate partners are just one form that career education at Mt. Hope is taking. Work-based learning is another. “Getting students to work on real world problems, work-based learning that extends to the level of applying those skills,” is another opportunity, said Ms. Lyons. That’s the kind of project that the Bristol Police Department recently brought to Brian Latessa’s Media Communications class.

The students produced a 1:45 recruiting video for the department that features interviews, drone shots, and a cameo by K-9 officer Brody. Sgt. Ricardo Mourato, who was present at last Wednesday’s screening of the near-final product, was very impressed by the quality of work, and the messaging. “They really ran with it,” he said. “I’m very impressed by the professionalism of these students.

“The same goes for the students,” said Mr. Latessa. “They had a great time working with the officers.”

Sgt. Mourato also noted that the students’ ability to convey what the Bristol Police are all about was very much on point.“We see ourselves as a community police department, and this video represents that very well,” he said.

“These are exactly the kind of partnerships we want to foster,” said Ms. Lyons. “Everyone benefits.”

A.J. Brooks is one of the students who helped produce that video, and Media Communications is one class on the marketing pathway he has been following. The Bristol senior is not certain where he will be attending college in the fall, but he knows he wants to pursue marketing, and perhaps sports management. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but the marketing pathway has helped so much,” A.J. said. “Once I started I just fell in love with it.”

For Ms. Lyons and the rest of the administration at Mt. Hope, they’d like to see 70 to 80 percent of students graduate with a concentration in a path, and some sort of credential. “We live in a society that honors credentials,” she said. “As a school district, we need to think the same way.”

Noting that Mt. Hope is one of few schools statewide that has managed to retain a robust arts program, she would like to see an arts pathway created. “We’ve sustained these programs, and we have so many graduates who have gone on to work in the arts.”

“They have the pieces, it’s just a matter of putting it together and pushing it forward. As a graduate of Mt. Hope, it’s great to see.”