Poway Unified students showcased their innovative projects and shared career aspirations at the Career Technical Education EXPO.

Booths were arranged throughout the Poway’s Mickey Cafagna Community Center at the May 18 event to let students show off visual displays of their class activities.

A range of art, technology, agriculture and research-based topics were presented to reflect 26 different pathways in the district’s Career Technical Education program.

Lynn McConville, the district’s director of Career Technical Education, said some students know what types of jobs their parents and neighbors do, but the career-focused program gives them experiences to broaden their awareness of a multitude of jobs available in the workforce.

“They can’t aspire to do something if they don’t know what’s out there,” said McConville during the EXPO. “This is an opportunity to explore what they might want to do in the future and to tie it to a future career.”

Five comprehensive high schools and a continuation high school plus two middle schools and an elementary school participated in the EXPO.

The following reflects a handful of educational exhibits and student learning at the EXPO:

Gardening and culinary arts at Abraxas High

Plants, along with hummus served with carrot sticks, were handed out at an Abraxas High school booth to highlight the school’s garden and culinary arts program. Students interested in agriculture-related careers are growing bell peppers, zucchini, squash and other seasonal produce at a campus garden.

Abraxas senior Braden Rogers said the school-grown produce is shared with the culinary arts program and surplus food is given to homeless shelters and women’s organizations. Some of the vegetables have been used to make salads, salsa and other dishes, he said.

Abraxas junior Khloe Hale explained the EXPO project involved making hummus from a recipe that a student had created for the culinary arts program.

“It’s a lot of work but it’s fun work and it’s peaceful,” Hale said. “Culinary arts is a hobby for me. I love cooking.”

Classmate Ayden Hegranes, a junior, said the culinary class helped him get a job at the Mama Cellas restaurant in Rancho Bernardo. For now he’s working as a dishwasher at the Italian restaurant, but he said he plans to become a cook there soon.

“It’s taught me multiple skills like what ingredients to use, what knives to use in the kitchen and I’ve learned how to work with classmates and co-workers,” said Hegranes, who has taught his classmates how to make pineapple chicken tacos from scratch. “This class makes it easier to work in the kitchen. My career will probably be cooking since I’ve been working well with that.”

Abraxas biology and agriculture teacher Bob Lutticken said the project-based learning helps students develop and explore their interests. Staff find out what students are interested in learning about and tie it to the curriculum, whether it’s gardening, cooking outdoors or creating ceramics and screen printing in the arts department.

“The way of stand-up and delivery of instruction doesn’t work that well anymore,” Lutticken said.

Photography at Westview High School

Westview High School senior Shai Davis is enrolled in the AP Studio Art course for the photography Career Technical Education pathway.

Her forte is narrative photography in which she tells a story through photographs. Her focus this year is on mental health issues, she said.

“It’s a misunderstood topic and I wanted to bring people’s stories onto a creative medium,” said Davis, who also conducts interviews and researches mental health issues. “It helps my photography and it helps me portray my stories.”

Davis says she can express concepts related to her photos, which generally focus on people, using backdrops and lighting design equipment at her school’s photography studio. What Davis is learning today will likely help her get a job someday in a media and marketing field that emphasizes social media, she said, adding that she has an “amazing” teacher, Sarah Layne.

Davis’ classmate, senior Anna Gray, said she focuses on nature photography because she likes finding beauty in underappreciated elements of nature. Gray has previously studied graphic design and plans to major in graphic design at Brigham Young University. She wants to work in advertising, branding and graphic design.

“My teachers teach me how to progress my talents and start a career in the outlets CTE courses offer like photography and graphic design,” Gray said. “I like that you can capture a moment in time and how everything you see revolves around design elements, photography or graphic design in some way.”

Robotics at Rancho Bernardo High

Rancho Bernardo High junior Preena Maruthavelu is a software engineer on a team of students that have built a robot named “Trident” for their robotics class in the engineering pathway. Members of the “Emotion” team are assigned tasks in the categories of build, design, software, electrical and marketing.

Together they spent six weeks building a robot that could pick up and place inflatable cubes and orange plastic cones in a robotics competition, Maruthavelu said.

Maruthavelu and her classmate, junior Ila Gowdn, participated in the global FIRST Robotics Competition, which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” Gowdn’s role was to help with wiring the robot as part of an electrical subteam.

Gowdn said the teamwork and engineering skills she’s learning will prepare her for college and possibly her career goal of becoming an aerospace engineer. She said she’s been inspired for her career path since participating in a FIRST Lego League in fourth grade and from there attended more STEM classes.

“I was an electrical lead this year so I had more responsibility leading my subgroup as well as wiring the robot,” said Gowdn, who aspires to attend Stanford University.

Sports Medicine at Mt. Carmel High

Mt. Carmel High School junior Dana Schimmel is taking a sports medicine class in the health science and medical technology pathway.

Schimmel has learned about the parts of the body, including muscles, bones and ligaments, and she’s learned how these parts function and how people can get injured in sports.

Her goal is to work in the medical field, possibly as a sports medicine doctor or a physical therapist.

“They teach us how an athletic trainer could help an athlete with an injury,” Schimmel said. “I feel it will give me a head start because I already know a lot of the main functions of the body and a lot of the most common injuries.”

Schimmel became interested in the medical field after suffering injuries while performing aerial acrobatics. She said she began taking gymnastics in the first grade then progressed to acrobatics in the seventh grade. Since then she’s performed in competitions and small showcases at schools and events.

“I have lots of injuries from acrobatics so I wanted to know what I could help myself with,” said Schimmel in explaining why she’s interested in sports medicine. “I find that the class is really interesting and it’s really fun.”

Biomedical Technology at Del Norte High School

Del Norte High School junior Akshat Parikh is taking multiple courses in the biomedical technology pathway. Among them are AP biology, AP statistics, AP computer science and honors medical interventions. Although he hasn’t decided on his career field, one option is to become a surgeon.

“Taking these classes will help me get exposure to what I want to do eventually,” Parikh said. “I’m leaning towards the medical side. Medicine is all about helping people and I always wanted to help people who are hurt. It’s amazing how much advancement there has been in the medical field and there’s still a lot more advancement to come.”

Parikh credits his teachers for teaching him the principles of biomedical sciences and anatomy as well as medical interventions.

“I’m learning about dealing with medical equipment, DNA sequencing, genetics and so much more,” he said. “It’s definitely a challenge but with the right enthusiasm any class is fun.”

Through Career Technical Education, older students mentor younger students with lessons and activities, McConville said. The younger students also engage in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum through the Project Lead the Way program.

Other opportunities include counseling to help students connect their classes to college and career goals, company tours, informational interviews with industry professionals, and connections to internships, McConville said.

For more information, call 858-668-4003.