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Hands-on Learning
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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In the Health Sciences, Choffin students Natalie Boerys and Ianna Shannon (standing) learn how to check respiration.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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It's Career and Technical Education Month, and students and instructors at Choffin Career Center in Youngstown demonstrate what they do in class.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Russell Gibson, an 11th grader from Chaney, works on building a wall as part of a contest for tech students in Ohio.
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Mortar dust covers Ibn Shakoor’s hands and pant legs as he leaves class at Choffin Career and Technical Center each day.
He’s studying masonry in instructor Jim Alexi’s class at the school.
Shakoor, 18, along with his classmates, is practicing for a contest later this month, assembling a 90-brick wall according to competition rules.
“I like it because it’s working with my hands,” he said.
He prefers that kind of work to sitting in a classroom.
February is Career and Technical Education Month, and the theme is Learning Today, Earning Tomorrow.
Though the Youngstown district’s graduation rate hovers at about 58 percent, Choffin’s is 79 percent. That’s also higher than the state average of 73.6 percent for career and technical schools.
Renee English, Choffin spokeswoman, also pointed out that the school’s attendance rate is 98 percent, and there have been no suspensions this year.
Choffin students spend part of the day at the career-technical school and part at their home schools.
Down the hall in auto mechanics, Chandor Pettress, 18, and Leonard Ellis, 17, work to repair a brake line on a car.
Pettress worked on his own car before, but with what he’s learned in instructor Adam Taylor’s class, he can help friends and family determine what’s wrong with their vehicles.
“If I can’t figure it out, I ask him,” Pettress said, indicating his instructor. “If I don’t know the answer, I know he does.”
People bring their cars into the shop for work to be done. Taylor brought his own 1962 Ford Falcon in so the students could learn to replace a head gasket.
He believes it gives them a better experience than just working on shop cars, or those that stay at the school just for students to work on them.
“That’s not real life,” Taylor said.
At the beginning of the class, some of the juniors were really green and didn’t even know the difference between a tire and a wheel, Taylor said. (FYI: The tire is the rubber part.)
Others knew a little.
Upon graduation, they’re ready to continue their training at a specialized school for auto mechanics. But they can also use what they learned at Choffin to get a job while they continue their education, Taylor said.
Though masonry and auto mechanics are tradition career-technical education programs, College Tech Prep Health Occupations Magnet School and mutimedia production are not.
In multimedia, the students learn the latest technology used in television production from how to run a sound board and camera to using the latest computer software.
They get time in front of the camera too, said instructor Jeff Alberini.
The students in his class earn credits at Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College.
Alberini does a lot of freelance work in addition to his instructor duties. He helps film Cleveland Indians games and worked as a freelance camera operator on a documentary called “Hammer on Steel,” airing this month on PBS.
That work not only keeps Alberini’s skills fresh, but it also allows him to instruct students as someone who’s on the front lines of his industry.
When Alberini spoke about the program at Chaney High School last year, Justin Seidner, 17, was hooked.
“When Mr. Alberini came into the school and talked about the program, I said, ‘This is awesome,’” Justin said.
That’s when he decided he wanted to attend Choffin, and he says it’s the best part of his day.
“It’s about making videos and working on websites and all the stuff I love to do,” Seidner said.
Students in the College Tech Prep Health Occupations program earn YSU credit in medical terminology, pharmacology, basic emergency-medical technician and several other areas, said Brenda Barton, one of the instructors.
Because they can earn certifications as an EKG technician, an EMT, a phlebotomist and a state- tested nurse’s aide while at Choffin, many are able to work while furthering their education.
Junior Natalie Byers, 17, plans to go to college to become a registered nurse upon graduation.
She knew she had an interest in the health profession because her brother is a nurse. Her studies at Choffin though, cemented her career choice.