Durango High School has a lot of opportunities for students, the classes DHS offers can be a valuable experience you bring to the work world. But the best classes for bringing into the real world are CTE, which stands for Career and Technical Education. These classes do not only help you in high school but also help you in college and at work. CTE classes are a wide variety from Culinary Arts, Construction Trades, Fashion Design, and even more. If these do not interest you there are many that you can choose from at DHS.
Kyle Montgomery, a CTE teacher for the Health Science Pathway, talks about students who have progressed to the higher level classes and the certifications that these students have earned, saying, “We have students that worked their way through the pathway and they have certifications like CPR, first aid, AED (Automated External Defibrillator), stop the bleed, and Narcan administration.”
CTE classes are an opportunity for students to start learning more about the jobs that they want and are able to start progressing while they are in high school. Now that CTE classes are diverse with many different pathways to choose from, students should look at all the different pathways that CTE classes offer to find something that suits their interests.
Morgan Kraska, a teacher for Graphic Design, talks about the different things she teaches in her foundation of multimedia and how it lets students explore what they want in different classes, stating, “we’ll do graphic design stuff for one unit and then a unit on animation and then video, photography, and journalism.”
This class allows students to explore a variety of subjects and helps students find something that they enjoy in that class and lets them learn all about the different options that they have. CTE classes can help students find new hobbies and career paths but most CTE classes are treated like real jobs meaning that students can get a feel on how that job would operate.
Tom Joyner, teacher for the Welding CTE classes, talks about how “if a teacher wants something specifically made for their classroom or maybe something for themselves we treat it as if they were a client.”
CTE is an opportunity that students should look into, some students know what they want to do in the future and the high school might offer a CTE class for their pathway. If you don’t know what you want to do,you can explore a variety of career pathways and find something you enjoy. CTE is an opportunity that students should not miss out on and should look into the classes to see what they offer or join the classes to see if you are interested in them.
