Designing Futures

Designing

2021 MS ACTE Counselor of the Year Builds Success Stories for Students, Industry Partners

Heather Craig

Pascagoula-Gautier School District’s (PGSD’s) Derek Read may have begun as a literal designer for Ingalls Shipbuilding, but after overhauling his own career he gradually shifted to the role of assisting students in designing their futures as a career and technical education counselor at PGSD’s College and Career Technical Institute (CCTI).

Read is now the center’s director, but he began at PGSD in 2001 as a Drafting and Design teacher and eventually became a counselor when students who were not even in CTE classes began coming to him for advice. After his counseling career culminated in being named 2021’s Counselor of the Year by the Mississippi Association for Career and Technical Education (MS ACTE), Read took on the director’s role and focused on cultivating partnerships.

In discussing his original career move from teacher to counselor, Read explains that students “would come and ask me about careers and what they should do with their lives because their friends would tell them ‘You’ve got to go talk to Mr. Read.’ My principal came to me and said, ‘Have you ever thought about becoming a counselor?’”

After Hurricane Katrina, Read attended a two-year summer program at the University of Southern Mississippi that allowed him to become a counselor, but he waited for his dream job — continuing work as a drafting teacher at PGSD’s

Read

CCTI — because he’d “fallen in love with the school.” In 2011, Read finally became a counselor there, bringing 10 years of experience with students and many forward-thinking ideas to the role.

“He has always been an email away to help me and make sure that I get what I need to help me succeed not only in my education but through life. I know I can always count on him,” Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College freshman and PGSD graduate Jozelyne Furby said. “He has always told me that I would make a great nurse and that if he needed anyone to take care of him, he would want it to be me.”

Read not only enjoys helping students clarify their career paths, but also has a passion for connecting CTE with business and industry.

PGSD Superintendent Dr. Wayne Rodolfich said, “We are able to advance our CCTI, our career pathways and career-technical programs because of the commitment level of Derek Read. He is always marketing our programs and searching for new pathway opportunities for our students.”

Over the past decade, Read used his creative thinking abilities to cultivate partnerships with business and industry, often with the ingenuity of a CTE MacGyver on a budget. In implementing his plan, Read did not wait on industry to show interest or contact him, nor did he ask for any type of monetary support; although, once business and industry partners saw the value CTE provides, many were more than willing to become sponsors.

Using his $100 per semester budget, Read started making partnership banners in 2012 by writing letters he sent all over the state asking to use potential partners’ logos and names he could pair CTE courses and labs with.

“For example, ‘The Ingalls Shipbuilding Academy of Welding.’ I paid for the banner hanging out in front of the class, but every parent, student and visitor sees

their support in our building. I would invite the businesses for hanging ceremonies where they would get their photo taken, tour the building and typically end up supporting the program in some way or another.

“The banners cost $25 each, but you would have thought I gave them a million dollars when they came to take their picture,” Read said.

Read’s ingenuity saw almost immediate success.

“I eventually had 79 business partners over six years. It’s just grown — I have 130 students doing internships this year with these partners,” he said.

Read’s outside-the-box thinking also helps when he works with his students individually. Instead of worrying when a student changes paths or moves on from a subject he or she has invested a lot of time in, Read said, “I am just as happy for a student when they tell me they don’t want to do something as I am when they say they do.”

This recently occurred when a student discovered she did not like blood after interning in an emergency room.

“Sometimes it’s just not for them. We’re not a movie production company that has actors at the hospital and everything just goes according to plan,” Read said. “This is real when they go in for the internship. When she changed her mind, I said, ‘I get it.’ That discovery is just as important to [the student] now as if she had found out that she loves it. She just saved [thousands] of dollars.” “If you have a third-year internship after two years in a CTE class, it’s either going to solidify your career or reinforce that ‘I don’t need to do this,’” Read explained. Read’s influence as a counselor and director goes beyond helping students through career choices, making sure programs connect with industry and investing in his students on a personal level.

As senior Health Science II student Jonathan Mansfield said, “He helped me through my parents’ divorce and has told me ‘No one else can control you besides you.’ He is a very intelligent, caring man. He always listens and gives the best advice on life.”

Read said, “What I tell students when I first meet them in this building is ‘Your life is about relationships. You’ve got one with me. This is your first relationship in CCTI. I will always be here if you need anything from me.’”

That outlook has had a measurable return on investment for Read, who said he owes so much of his success to the connections he’s made with PGSD’s business and industry partners.

“I don’t ever miss the opportunity to thank them. Your life is about the relationships you make. Don’t be afraid to give or ask for help.”

“I am just as happy for a student when they tell me they don’t want to do something as I am when they say they do, sometimes it’s just not for them.”

- Derek Read, CCTI counselor