Future teachers earn honors at Hillyard Tech
May 7—Several future educators in St. Joseph received special recognition on Tuesday.
The Hillyard Tech Center is best known for its capacity to train young students in the industrial arts, such as welding, robotics and automotive technology. However, it is also the site of a program that trains students interested in becoming teachers. Since the creation three years ago of the Educators Rising program at the HTC, it has helped students like Brynn McDowell understand how it all works from the teacher's perspective in the classroom.
"I chose middle school last year, and we get to see and observe how that teacher teaches, and how they do behavior management, and how those children interact," said McDowell, who will graduate this month from Central High School. "I realized then that this was the kind of environment I want to be in."
Educators Rising participant Jeimy Cruz-Aguilera knows all about her chosen program, the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages, because she benefited from that program herself throughout her childhood. She is a native speaker of Spanish and said she now aims to offer the same help she received to the kids of tomorrow.
"This program has helped me a lot, because it's giving me the opportunity to like, see it in elementary school now that I'm older, because I don't really remember what it was like when I was in elementary school," said Cruz-Aguilera, who will also graduate from Central later this month.
Educators Rising involves two years of challenging work, according to Becky Jones, Educators Rising program sponsor and Hillyard Tech Center instructor of career pathways to the teaching profession. Jones trains about 30 students at any one time — juniors and seniors. In the junior year, students get their first taste of the classroom environment and get an understanding of what grade level and subject material they want to focus on.
In the senior year, each Educators Rising student spends four out of every five class days away from the high school they have thus far attended, working alongside a full-time teacher and assisting them with whatever they need. In this way, they enter their chosen university with hundreds of hours of practical experience.
McDowell will be studying at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, while Cruz-Aguilera intends to stay in St. Joseph and go to Missouri Western State University. Aside from those two, seven other students were celebrated by Jones on Tuesday at the HTC. Each young student signed a ceremonial certificate that formally pledges their intent to graduate with a collegiate degree in education, which the State of Missouri will require them to have before they are hired as full-time teachers.
The other honorees were Rayne Spoonemore, Gracelyn Hearn, Lana Fuller, Tredesa Frazer, Trinity Cross, Lilyan Bortell and Ryann Armstrong.
Marcus Clem can be reached at marcus.clem@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowClem
