Allan Appel Photo
Hillhouse High senior Alana Woods-Edwards.
After a graduation, family and friends often take the graduates to dinner.
In the case of a local graduation Thursday — for a unique after-school vocational training program — Alana Woods-Edwards and the other graduates themselves helped to cook the dinner.
Plumbing teacher Tom Borrelli and plumbing grad David Badger celebrated, and ate.
The graduation ceremony was for the Career Pathways TECH Collaborative at the Eli Whitney Technical High School.
More than 100 family members and admirers gathered to congratulate the 37 New Haven high school kids who completed 100 hours of training in a strenuous after-school program of hands-on training in carpentry, plumbing, the culinary arts, and manufacturing skills.
A group called the Justice Education Center runs the program conjunction with the New Haven government’s Youth Stat program.
It’s another aspect of the city’s efforts to reach troubled teens with opportunities for training and success before the trouble gets more serious.
The aim of the program is to offer New Haven high school juniors and seniors either on probation or already involved in the juvenile justice system hands-on training in a job that interests the kids and has a future.
The first project by carpentry students like Luis Tenjay was to make a tool box.
So when Luis Tenjay, a New Light High School junior, received his certificate, he not only talked about how he learned to make dovetail cuts in the workshop and demonstrated other carpentry skills. He added: “This program helped keep me from doing things I shouldn’t be doing. Thanks to this program I’m off the streets, in school, and doing much better.”
The students also have earned and have in hand an OSHA 10 certificate, which certifies the kids have learned basic safety skills on the job site.
Culinary arts student Alan Woods-Edwards learned how to cook and bake coconut macaroons. She said the secret ingredient was “love!” She comes away from the training with a Serve Safe certificate. That’s a national certification about food handling and food safety, said program Coordinator Laura Whitacre.
Eddie Garcia demonstrates the results of one of his computer-lathe cut patterns.
The students who apply or who are referred to the program are tested to see if they read at a minimum on the ninth-grade level. They also are interviewed at length. Preference is given to students on probation or involved in other aspects of the juvenile justice system.
Last year the city launched the program with 21 kids. This year it expanded the program to two groups of about 48 each, with the first celebrating its graduation Thursday night.
Whitacre said 141 kids applied. Of the 48 in the first cohort, 37 completed the 100 hours of training.
Carl Jones and Luis Tenjay both want to re-up in Career Pathways.
City Youth Services Director Jason Bartlett said the full year of the program costs about $250,000. Plans are to expand the vocational training at Eli Whitney into new areas like welding and information technology.
It all depends on money, he emphasized, adding that the city hopes to apply for a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s YouthBuild program.
Students testified to learning not only dove cuts and the use of calipers but also values of teamwork on the job.
That derives in no small part from teachers weaving into the curriculum character-building values that they abbreviate as ECHO—empathy, character, hope, and opportunity.
Five graduates — Marcus Ascencio, Donte Simmons, Patrick Moye, Jonathan Escobar, and Raheem Forbes — were cited for their unique contributions in this area, and each received a $100 prize.
Carpentry grad Carl Jones, a Hillhouse High junior, said he was most impressed with learning to use a SawStop, a device that stops a spinning blade when it comes in contact with flesh.
The soul food and Italian buffet.
“The inventor used a hot dog” to develop it, he said.
Carl and his friend Luis Tenjay were not alone among the students who said they want to apply for the second semester of Career Pathways.
First, after the ceremonies, they dived into the garlic collard greens, the beef Bolognese with penne, and the tembleque cups with mango whipped cream, created by their colleagues.
Sorry this story was hidden, just wanted to say congrats to the educators from NHPS and the state VoTech system who made this possible. Its behind the scenes successes like this that make us keep working to meet the needs of all students!
Richard Therrien
NHPS Science Supervisor