College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Dual Credit Career and Technical Education (CTE) Coordinators, Jessica Concie and Oster Hernandez, presented at the National Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) CareerTech Vision 2022 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, earlier this month. The duo presented in front of hundreds of educators and school leaders from around the world.
The conference is geared towards secondary and postsecondary career and technical educators, business leaders, and industry professional. Attendees were able to attend various networking events, educational sessions, and speaker series, such as Concie and Hernandez’s presentation on their Pop-the-Trunk Project.
CWI Dual Credit’s Pop-the-Trunk Project involves teaching trunks that include lesson plans, program-specific materials and equipment, software, tools, and other information to help alternative high school students explore and learn about CTE.
Concie and Hernandez were able to explain more about their work connecting high school students to CTE programs and the resources students have post-high school. They were also able to connect with other educators and school leaders from around the country to learn new tools and resources to bring back to CWI.
“It was great to share what we are doing at CWI and in Idaho,” Hernandez said. “Schools around the country saw a value in what we presented. CTE and alternatives do not always get the recognition — especially in other states. What we're doing with the trunks is taking CTE to local schools and students, creating lesson plans, and exposing them to CTE.”
Concie and Hernandez are invited to present at upcoming Idaho Division of Career Technical Education’s CONNECT conferences.
For those with questions or in need of more information of CWI’s CTE Dual Credit programs, contact osterhernandez@cwi.edu or jessicaconcie@cwi.edu.