By Hailey Palmer, Puyallup Tribal News
The Career and Technical Education program at Chief Leschi Schools, launched in its current form in fall 2020, was designed in part to make sure students see all possibilities and career paths they can take upon graduation.
The program is divided into five pathways: hospitality (culinary arts), science and engineering (natural resources), education, audio/visual technology and health sciences (medical).
“When we launched the program, we planned it so our five different pathways aligned directly to the major Tribal employers in the area,” said CLS Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Nancy Nelson. “We wanted kids to see people like them working in careers they could then work for.”
Nelson added that Puyallup Tribal Council specifically was asking for the program to prepare students to take on leadership roles at Tribal entities.
“A lot of Tribal Members work for the entities, but not always in leadership roles,” she said. “They were looking to get those roles filled by Puyallup Tribal Members or people (who) graduated from Chief Leschi.”
The career and technical education classes have given students a different way to learn required teachings for graduation.
Nelson recalled a student’s experience with the school’s fisheries management class.
“He said it was so much more interesting because he was learning stuff he could actually use, and in other classes it felt like he was memorizing stuff because they wanted him to,” she said.
A little less than five years since the program’s implementation, seeing the growth has been one of the most exciting things for Nelson.
She said the program had a significant impact on graduation rates right away.
“There’s research that shows students who are taking a second year or higher of a CTE class have better attendance, better grades in general and a much higher graduation rate,” Nelson said. “I think what it does is it makes it seems like education matters and education is there to help them.”
Not only is the program set up for students to simultaneously earn college credit in most of the classes, but a coinciding internship program was launched in 2021, giving students further opportunities to explore professional fields.
It starts with a class where students do career exploration, learn how to write resumes and write professional emails. In the second half of the school year, they’re placed in an internship to get hands-on work experience.
“It’s been a class that can be the capstone class for any of our five pathways,” Nelson said. “It’s getting kids work experience. In the future, the dream would be that we are actually able to place kids in apprenticeships so they can be making money, working and getting high school credit all at the same time.”
Seniors in the class of 2024 graduated with more than 492 college credits combined earned through the career and technical education program.
“It’s really about opening doors and getting students to see a future where they can contribute to their community, contribute to the world, and also make some money and feel successful,” Nelson said.
