‘Excellent’ defines the technical career opportunities at ACE

By Gwyneth J. Saunders CONTRIBUTOR

Vanesa Ruiz is one of the first people whom students, staff and visitors meet when they come in the front doors of the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Excellence in Ridgeland.

Now an administrative assistant at the front desk, Ruiz is more than an employee. She is a 2009 graduate of the school’s cosmetology program, one of 35 Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs taught at ACE and Beaufort County high schools.

“Our school brought us here to tour, they introduced us to all of the programs that were available, and cosmetology just grabbed my attention,” she said. It was a two-year program at the time, but is now only two semesters and a half, starting in the junior year and finishing as a senior.

After graduating, Ruiz worked from home where she could make her own hours and raise her oldest child. It was an ideal situation for her, and she said it would also be a good Plan B.

“It’s a great backup for students to have such skills if they go to college,” she said.

“Coming back here as an administrative assistant was actually great timing because my daughter is in high school now, and my twins have started school.”

For Ruiz, her career path gave her independent options. Ethan Ascencion’s plans are on a larger scale. He and his classmate Luis Sanchez, both Hilton Head High School juniors, were finishing up a fun, endof-term bonus project of making pencils on the building construction workshop lathes.

“I just like to learn new stuff. I’m trying to take over the family construction business,” said Ascencion.

This semester, his class worked on cabinetmaking, made seats for the picnic table frames made by the welding class, and learned how to make basic stair layouts.

Many of the students are taking courses such as construction because it sparks an interest. Kyana Brey, also a junior from Hilton Head, is interested in building things.

“My plan is hopefully to go to architecture school so one day I can make my own building or my own house,” she said.

Deacon Qualls, a Bluffton High School junior, won the 2023 SkillsUSA state championship in cabinetmaking after his first semester in the program.

“I’ve been doing carpentry for a while, and I took this so I can learn, formalize it,” he said. “I just like making stuff.”

According to its website, SkillsUSA is a nonprofit national education association,

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