Students in grades nine through 12 attended the district’s first Trades Day event April 24.
The event was held in the South Gym for interested students. The trades represented included carpentry, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, public Works, insulation, manufacturing, precision and career tech.
The event was organized by math teacher Nevin Jenkins and guidance counselor David Peake. The two advise the Architecture, Construction and Engineering mentor program, which aims to acquaint students with those professions. According to the district’s list of student activities, “ACE will send speakers each week to talk about each topic and food will be provided. The ACE mentoring can lead to internships and jobs within the Cleveland area.”
Of the 120 students invited to participate, 80 attended the event. Ninth- and 10th-grade students attended during second period. Eleventh- and 12th-grade students attended during fourth period, and 12th-grade students were offered the opportunity to speak to a professional at 11:30 a.m.
Jenkins said that the decision to hold Trades Day was inspired by taking students to an ACE Trades Day event at Cuyahoga Community College last year. “It was a very hands-on, engaging opportunity. I realized that in order to expose more of our students to some opportunities in the trades, we needed to bring the trades to them, so I wanted to create the same experience here,” said Jenkins, “so I met with Mr. Peake, who is very connected, to get some tradespeople here.”
“We started planning, and some people in the trades and others in the district who were interested in it came together and made it happen,” Jenkins said.
Peake said that the trades day will help broaden Shaker students’ post-graduation opportunities. “Shaker has such a strong college-going culture, and I love that about us, but I think sometimes we don’t really consider all the great options there are for students,” Peake said. “We kind of hold college as this ‘better-than’ experience, that this is where the people of means go, but when you look at it, everyone is different.”
Freshman Drew Watkins attended Trades Day and had a positive experience. “I wasn’t specifically focused on one trade, I more so went to learn more about them in general and look into how I could do more with them in the future,” Watkins said. “I think it was extremely helpful. It allowed me to learn more as well as learn about many job and internship opportunities.”
Jenkins said that the opportunity to learn about the trades was rewarding for students. “There were great conversations that happened today with students and tradespeople because they got to experience the trade. Then they had conversations about how to start,” he said.
Jenkins said that it’s important for students to gain exposure to these opportunities. “When you think about anything that’s in your built environment, it was likely done by a tradesperson. I think that there’s a disconnect sometimes with how schools push kids toward college a lot. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a lot of kids feel like if they don’t go to college, they have to work some minimum-wage job,” Jenkins said. “If you’re a good learner and you want to do something hands-on, there are so many opportunities for you, and you don’t have to go into debt.”
Peake said his motivation to expand trades day is to let students know what is out there. “So many students just aren’t going to know that there is something perfect for them, and they’ll never know that it’s there. So maybe the perfect thing for you is to work with precision instruments, and you won’t even put your eyes on it,” Peake said.
Said Peake, “We were already talking about what time we want to do this next year – should it be April or should it be March? This was just the start, so we are definitely going to be doing this annually. We are excited about expanding next year.”
