Building their
FUTURES
Sumter Career and Technology Center offers STEM-certified programs
BY BRUCE MILLS Success often leads to more success, and that is the trail Sumter School District's high school career and technology center is trying to blaze going forward. Sumter Career and Technology Center administrators and staff shared how the addition of higher-end career programs in recent years has paid dividends in the form of increased enrollment and more partnerships, and now they say they think a national STEM certification will bring more
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2022-20 2 3 L I F E I S G O O D IN S U M TER
opportunities. Leading educational certification group Cognia awarded Sumter Career and Technology Center its national STEM credential in April 2021, and the center is now the fourth school in the district that has STEM certification. The others include Bates Middle School, Alice Drive Middle School and Alice Drive Elementary School. STEM is an educational curriculum focused on the integration of science, technology, engineering and math with the other core subjects. Newer programs of study, to include three specifically related to
21st-century jobs in manufacturing/ mechatronics, aerospace engineering and cyber security, to supplement traditional programs have enrollment at 392 students this year. That's the highest total in Principal Shirrie Miller's eight years at the school and nearly double from her initial years. The career and technology center is changing with the times, and classroom buzzwords include projectbased learning, problem solving, troubleshooting, student ownership of learning, innovation, awareness, empowering and exposure. The center's goal is to have programs that are both beneficial to students and the community. Walter Robertson, the career center's guidance counselor, has experience in business and industry and also served as the school's STEM coordinator for the certification process. He said the STEM certification is a step in the process of providing business and industry managers and leaders what they are looking for. "It shows that we are doing our part to be innovative, to be forward thinkers, to create new opportunities for our students," Robertson said, "because the world around us is changing. The days of vocational training and education is a thing of the past and behind us. As the district's career and technology education center, we must ensure that we stay in line with the careers out there." Those careers are computer-based and require technology-savvy workers,
