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Central Carolina Technical College ............................................... 58 Morris College ............................................................................... 60 Sumter School District
Building their FUTURES
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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 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,
he said, and it is best for students to understand processes to troubleshoot effectively in the workplace.
The cyber security program is in its first year, and Betty Brown is the course instructor. Students learn about various types of security breaches, and she said she thinks the program provides a greater awareness of what is out there for students as far as careers.
Brown is working on articulation agreements with Central Carolina Technical College and Morris College, and Miller, the principal, said the center is working on program partnerships with area colleges.
In the center's two-year health science program for high school juniors and seniors, students learn the basics of patient care and can earn their Certified Nursing Assistant certification by the time they graduate high school.
Morgan Martinez is a Sumter High School senior and has taken the health science courses as a steppingstone into a health care postsecondary education and career. She plans to focus on pre-med in college at the University of Alabama and then attend medical school there to eventually become an OBGYN. "This is an amazing program," Martinez said. "It's given me so much more information than I ever thought it would give me. I would definitely recommend to others really paying attention in that first year, where every single day in class you are just hit with more and more information. But, when you retain all of it and you get in the second year, and you feel like you just know everything."
About Sumter School District
Sumter School District was formed in 2011 by consolidating two districts within the county.
The district serves more than 16,000 students in preschool through 12th grade and employs over 3,000 staff members. It encompasses 682 square miles and includes 15 elementary schools, seven middle schools, three high schools, one alternative learning program, an adult education program and the Sumter Career and Technology Center.
For more information, go to www.sumterschoolsnet.
Sumter School District is governed by nine elected members of the Board of Trustees. Seven members represent single member districts throughout Sumter, and two are members at-large.
The Board of Trustees meet publicly on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 6 p.m. unless otherwise announced. Special meetings are scheduled as needed. For information about meetings and coverage afterward, follow The Sumter Item.
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