Looking forward – and backward – to a summer of fun

With this feature, we seek to capture a glimpse of what you and your neighbors have to say about a variety of topics, issues, events – and just plain fun questions. You might see us anywhere around town, with notepad and camera, randomly seeking out folks who are willing to participate. If we find you, we hope you will want to respond.

At and around the public dock at the end of Calhoun Street, we asked, “What was the best thing about summer when you were a kid?”

Escape and a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. The organization serves middle school, high school and college/postsecondary students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.

Considering the number of banners in the entryway of ACE, the school has routinely brought home SkillsUSA state championships in such diverse areas as marine technology, cosmetology, medical terminology, first aid/CPR, television (video) production and entrepreneurship. Regional winners go to state competitions, and the top two or three places in state advance to nationals.

In addition to that recognition, students who excel are also inducted into the National Technical Honor Society, similar to the National Honor Society.

“We have to show those same grades in their technical programs. You not only have to maintain high academic achievement in your general education, but then also in your CTE program,” said ACE Director Michael Lovecchio. “I think we had 30 kids that we just put in this past semester. We probably have a 196 on campus, and when we look at things like GPA, we have a pretty high achieving group of kids.”

Major industry manufacturers and businesses are partnered with ACE programs, such as Yamaha, and the American Boating and Yachting Council, which provides training for the instructors and equipment for the marine technology course; and Howell-Chase provides the equipment for the electrical course on which students train to work in heating, cooling and electrical installation.

Five of the courses require state licensing, so once the students have reached the end of the classroom work, they prepare to take both written and practical tests.

So far this year, six students have been licensed for barbering, and there are three new emergency medical technicians. Nail technician, cosmetology and certified nursing assistant also require a state license. As soon as they receive their licenses, graduates are eligible for employment.

Each program has its own location on the ACE campus, a series of buildings and classrooms that range from an academic atmosphere for the CNAs to an automotive garage, complete with equipment that most will find in the workplace.

In the barbering classroom, instructor

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Sheronda Coleman was working on one student while others were completing individual projects.

“I’m just doing a trim right now, and then she’s going to be braiding it,” said Brown, indicating another student. “They haven’t learned hair cutting, so I’ve got to help them out a little bit.”

At another hair station, Kylise Green braided fellow student Donovan Loving-Howard’s hair.

“I love hair,” said the Battery Creek student. “I love it because I can make people smile.”

Loving-Howard, who attends Bluffton High School, wanted to learn how to cut hair. Both have completed their first semester, will return to the program as seniors in the fall, and plan to open their own professional shops.

Instructors also come from their respective industries – some exchanging their fulltime career for that of the classroom.

Registered Nurse Deandrea Brown left hospital wards to teach future certified nursing assistants at ACE to allow students to understand how to get into the profession and what it can offer.

“The more information that they can obtain at the high school level is good. A lot of the information does not change, so it gives them a head start in health professions, not just nursing,” said Brown. “A lot of people say, ‘Hey, I want to go to a career like technical school for nursing.’ Our curriculum covers many pathways through healthcare, but the basics – the foundational anatomy and physiology communication that is going to be covered – the body doesn’t change. And the way that you communicate with patients and the expectations in health care does not change.”

The whole point, Brown added, is to give students that foundation, and allow them to get through some of those stigmas of what they think healthcare or just nursing is.

“Programs like this give not only a good foundation, but a foot in the door. When my students leave here, they have ‘Stop the Bleed’ training, CNA certifications, and CPR certifications,” she said. “I have one student who’s dual certified EMT and CNA, and she’s not even graduated yet from high school.”

Chef Eric Sayer left a career of years as an executive chef to teach culinary arts to ACE students. The program is actually a Technical College of the Lowcountry course, and students earned nine credits this past semester.

“If they want to go on to TCL, they can skip that first sanitation course and the cu-

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ACE from page 10A linary 101 course, and they could earn their associates by the time they’re 19 or 20,” said Sayer, who is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

“It’s amazing to see the students – from the first day that they start in here, when they don’t even know how to hold the knife – to the time when we come and produce some of the caterings we do for the district,” he said. “It’s awesome to see.”

Students at ACE and at the other hospitality schools have to get their ServSafe certification before working in the food-handling industry. It’s a sure way to find employment in restaurants. Their career path is also not limited to the kitchen.

“With photography, all the food blogs, they have so many different avenues. When I was going to school, I knew my track was to be an executive chef. Now they can go and they can use all this knowledge for any different areas in the hospitality industry,” said Sayer. “All my chef buddies are like, ‘Got anybody? Send them my way’.”

And ACE does indeed send students to numerous industries.

“These kids here, and some of the students in the other high schools that take these courses, our placement rate has been 95% or above,” said Karen Gilbert, the Beaufort County School District Career and Technical Education director.

Six months later after graduating, the Beaufort County School District is required to follow up with those who have taken several courses within the state-approved pathways to see what they’re doing, what they’re working with, or what they are doing in the military.

“Kids who take these classes tend to stick with it as a career, and it might not be exactly what they studied,” Gilbert said. “For example, we have a young man who was in the welding program at May River High School. He did an internship with Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority. They loved him because he had that hands-on knack of what he learned in the welding program. They hired him, and now he’s in field operations. He’s working on laying pipe, and they’ve even got him doing blueprint reading.”

Competition is keen to get into an ACE program at the Ridgeland campus or in the high schools.

“This year we had 300 applications, and it’s a good problem to have, but it’s also the kids who want to take these programs, and they can’t get in because so many are full, like barbering,” said Lovecchio. “You’ve got to look at the indicators. Do they have 100 absences, or three suspensions? We do a lottery, but what we do is we take the average of each kid, their GPA or whatever applies, and then I’m very liberal, and I move it down quite a bit. I feel that some of the kids that perform here might not perform in their feeder schools. And sometimes if there are openings, we find them spots and give them a choice. Some kids will jump in, and others might say ‘no’ anyway because they really only want to do one thing.”

Both Gilbert and Lovecchio admit that the traditional educational pathway is college-driven, but in the past five to 10 years a career piece has been added to school counseling.

“You’re changing this culture that’s been in place in schools and parents of ‘My kid needs to go to school.’ You’re kind of a counterculture, but it’s becoming more and more relevant, especially after COVID and everything shut down,” said Lovecchio. “People realize these are recession-proof jobs. Our popularity has almost reflected that, so we go into each school, I talk about some of our success stories to the students. And I give them the fact that this isn’t necessarily a career path, but this might be your backup plan or your side hustle while you’re in college.”

While they aren’t earning money yet as a professional, many students will give manicures, pedicures and haircuts to more than their fellow students. School staff and outsiders in-the-know have also benefited from being practice subjects by appointment. When the doors are open, both students and the community benefit.

For more information on the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Excellence, its courses and opportunities to volunteer, visit bjace.org.

Gwyneth J. Saunders is a veteran journalist and freelance writer living in Bluffton.