By Felicity Aguilar and Yisela Nuñez-Molina
JTED hosted an officer training here at Pueblo and invited CTE students and teachers from Cholla High School to attend. More than 50 students from PHS and another approximately 35 from Cholla were in attendance in Pueblo’s library on Monday, September. 14, 2016.
Funded by the Pima County JTED Department, this event lasted the entire school day and included students from JTED/CTE classes, along with their teachers. The following Pueblo organizations were present: Educators Rising; HOSA; Skills USA (Graphics, Photography, Auto, Media, Printing); Yearbook; National Technological Honor Society; and DECA.
One of the primary objectives of this event each year is to help prepare students to become leaders in the future. They have been selected as officers for their clubs/classes or will be selected in the future. A variety of activities kept students from both schools interacting with their peers and engaged with analytical and evaluative tasks and hypothetical scenarios.
Rosa Duran, a senior from Cholla High School, said, “This training has truly taught me to work equally among my peers and to be respected as much as I respect their opinions.”
According to Pueblo’s CTE site coordinator, Dr. Maria Bicknell, another one of the primary objectives of this workshop is to instill within students the empowerment regarding knowledge and leadership.
Bicknell, along with Cholla’s CTE site coordinator, Ms. Lucy Swift, spent weeks of planning and organizing this workshop for both schools.
“Teamwork—that’s what this workshop is partly about,” Swift said. “My students [from Cholla] and I are very pleased at the organization of this event and how well students behaved and responded to the challenges that were presented to them.”
Mr. Curt Bertelsen, the training inspector from Pima County JTED, once again hosted an electrifying and engaging display of parliamentary procedure for students.
David Molina, a junior who attended this meeting, said, “Mr. Bertelsen’s presentation gives us students the skills and knowledge to successfully run our clubs.” He added, “The knowledge that I will take back will shape the way I help run the auto club for the next two years. He was truly an amazing and unforgettable speaker who knows how to keep students interested and thinking.”
Cholla graphics and design teacher, Mr. Mike Hensley, said, “I believe that it is very important and inspiring for students to see peers not only from their school but also to learn what students from other schools are doing in their CTE classes.”
Destyni Payan, a sophomore from Cholla who is enrolled in her school’s yearbook class, said, “I am returning to my school tomorrow with a new sense of purpose and will be even more positive about what I am doing. When I see all of these great students from both Pueblo and Cholla, I am really proud to be in a CTE class knowing that I’m learning the latest in technology and putting what I am learning into practice.”
“I want to become a better leader for my club and open my arsenal to new opportunities,” said Estevan Medrano, president of the auto club. “This workshop really is a great idea and offers us students new perspectives which is always a good thing.”
Maria Servellon, a junior who is president of HOSA, said that she learned a great deal at this workshop including how to properly conduct a meeting.
“Today’s experience was positive on so many levels, although I wish that we Pueblo students could have interacted with our Cholla guest students more,” Servellon said.
Jirsey Duron, a senior at Pueblo, who is the secretary of Educators Rising (sponsored by Ms. Bonnie Stull), said that the workshop was a lot of fun and a great learning experience at the same time.
“I learned how to work well with my peers and how to be a positive role model,” Duron said. “We need more of these workshops—not just CTE members but for all students in high school. Diplomacy is way beyond important in our violent world.”