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Kate Bishop, a homeschooled student from Halifax County enrolled in the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center Career Tech Academy’s automation robotics program, demonstrates what she has learned for a group of state and local education leaders visiting the robotics lab.
Dr. Betty Adams (far right), executive director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, gives a presentation about the center’s Career Tech Academy Thursday for a group of local and state education leaders.
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, deputy secretary of education Sarah Spota and Elizabeth Schultz, assistant state superintendent of public instruction (from left) meet Kate Bishop (third from left), a student from Halifax County enrolled in the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center Career Tech Academy’s automation robotics program during a Thursday afternoon visit to South Boston.
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera (left) and Valdivia Hall, interim superintendent of Halifax County Public Schools, tour the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center’s automation and robotics lab Thursday along with other state and local education leaders.
Dr. Betty Adams (far right), executive director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, gives a presentation about the center’s Career Tech Academy Thursday for a group of local and state education leaders.
Kate Bishop, a homeschooled student from Halifax County enrolled in the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center Career Tech Academy’s automation robotics program, demonstrates what she has learned for a group of state and local education leaders visiting the robotics lab.
A group of Virginia educational leaders recently got a glimpse of local high school students’ expertise in using the latest technology in a place where South Boston’s history collides with its future.
State secretary of education Aimee Guidera, along with deputy secretary of education Sarah Spota and Elizabeth Schultz, assistant state superintendent of public instruction, visited the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center’s Innovation Center Thursday afternoon and toured the center’s robotics and automation lab.
“I love the symbolism of this being an old tobacco warehouse and now it’s preparing for the future,” Guidera commented.
The SVHEC’s structure itself harkens back to South Boston’s roots in the tobacco industry, but the equipment inside the building is designed to prepare students in its training programs for lucrative 21st century career opportunities.
Inside the lab, the group watched as robotics student Kate Bishop demonstrated the results of a robotics code she had programmed. Bishop took control of the robot, which played a couple of tunes on a keyboard.
Dr. Betty Adams (far right), executive director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, gives a presentation about the center’s Career Tech Academy Thursday for a group of local and state education leaders.
Miranda Baines/Special to The Gazette-Virginian
The group gave Bishop a round of applause, and Guidera called her trip to the SVHEC’s Innovation Center and what she had witnessed there “inspiring.”
Bishop, a homeschooled student from Halifax, shared she had always had an interest in mathematics. The robotics program is teaching her practical, hands-on applications of her favorite school subject that she can use in her future career.
Bishop is enrolled in the SVHEC’s Career Tech Academy, which provides workforce training to 11th and 12th grade students from Halifax, Mecklenburg and Charlotte counties. Along with automation robotics, the CTA offers four other programs – energy systems technology, welding, information technology and work-based learning. Next year, an HVAC program will be offered, as well.
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, deputy secretary of education Sarah Spota and Elizabeth Schultz, assistant state superintendent of public instruction (from left) meet Kate Bishop (third from left), a student from Halifax County enrolled in the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center Career Tech Academy’s automation robotics program during a Thursday afternoon visit to South Boston.
Miranda Baines/Special to The Gazette-Virginian
“The Career Tech Academy is helping young people explore career opportunities,” explained SVHEC’s executive director Dr. Betty Adams, in a presentation prior to the group’s tour of the robotics lab. “They can earn a career studies certificate. When they graduate, they have really good options.”
The hands-on CTA also integrates the students’ high school core high school curriculum, Adams noted.
“Automation and robotics instructor Adam Reeves has integrated algebra into the program. He teaches electrical equations, where the students investigate and analyze linear, quadratic and logarithmic equations,” Adams elaborated. “They don’t even realize they’re learning math, but this is what they’re learning.”
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera (left) and Valdivia Hall, interim superintendent of Halifax County Public Schools, tour the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center’s automation and robotics lab Thursday along with other state and local education leaders.
Miranda Baines/Special to The Gazette-Virginian
The SVHEC’s CTA began with the aim of filling gaps in access to career and technical education that the rural public schools in Southside Virginia lacked, Adams explained. Since the CTA started, Adams said the program has had a total cumulative enrollment of 164 students, with a completion rate of 96% and a total of 353 credentials earned. A total of 40% of students completing the CTA program go straight to work, while 60% pursue post-secondary education.
Guidera applauded the SVHEC for helping high school students find the career pathway best suited to them, saving them time and money in the process.
“What you all are doing is turning on the lights, providing pathways and reducing that churn of wandering in the dark until they land on something,” Guidera said. “It’s great for everybody – for the companies that want to grow and find workers, for the individual, and for taxes because more people are making money. It’s a win-win-win.”
Dr. Betty Adams (far right), executive director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, gives a presentation about the center’s Career Tech Academy Thursday for a group of local and state education leaders.
Miranda Baines/Special to The Gazette-Virginian
Mecklenburg County Public Schools superintendent Paul Nichols added the workforce training provided to the high school students is a worthwhile effort, with students finding they can make a comfortable living wage in an occupation they enjoy.
“We’re building pipelines for these students, and it costs money to build these things, but the dividends are incredible,” Nichols said.
Through the dual-enrolled program, students earn workforce credentials without incurring debt from student loans. Halifax County Public Schools offers dual-enrolled programs, as well.
Representatives from companies with student interns enrolled in the CTA programs also shared the success of the program with the group during Thursday’s presentation at the SVHEC.
“This is our second year that we’ve taken on interns, and this is a complete learning experience for all involved,” said Jimmy Martin, fleet manager at AJ Transport, a fast-growing trucking company
Martin described his intern’s ability to learn the welding trade as “exceptional.” He added the intern has filled out an application to work full-time at AJ Transport after his graduation.
Danielle Porter of Mecklenburg Electric-EMPOWER Broadband said the company’s interns had learned skills such as GIS mapping and the workforce skill of doing formal panel-style interviews for open positions within the company.
