Titan Engineering & Technology Academy graduates its first four-year students

Diane A. Rhodes Special to Valley News

This June will see the first graduating class of students who have completed four years with the Temescal Canyon Titan Engineering & Technology Academy that was created in the 2019-2020 school year. Although the Lake Elsinore high school has offered an engineering program for about 15 years, which many students benefited from, this year marks the first official class of engineering academy graduates.

The academy is the pet project of Robert Parks, who is teaching for his 20th year at Temescal Canyon. He said the engineering academy students take four years of specialized math and science classes where they are cohorted in those classes with very specific teachers.

“They also take three years of engineering courses, one year of computer science and robotics and one year of Health and Workplace Safety,” Parks said. “These are all official academy classes where the teachers collaborate on projects and curriculum. We are also adding Technical Reading and Writing next year.”

His wife, Kathy Parks, teaches the Health and Workplace Safety class, where students learn all the curriculum they would receive in the school’s traditional health courses. In addition to that, they learn workplace safety, professionalism and earn a 10-hour OSHA safety certification.

Parks said that Kathy has been a huge resource and supporter of the academy since its inception.

“We also have great support and input from our science and math teachers,” he said. “Diana Gillam, who teaches our computer science courses, has also been a big contributor. Our strongest supporter at the district office is Brian Deis, who is the director of secondary education. Brian has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help make this program successful. Our site admin has always been very supportive and encouraging as well.”

When Parks first began teaching engineering courses at Temescal Canyon, the department had few tools and very old equipment.

“Thanks to a lot of hard work, determination and support from the district we have capitalized on a lot of grant funding from the state, federal and private levels,” he said. “The Gene Haas Foundation has contributed $125,000 over the past six years directly to the engineering program and academy. We also make use of the Carl V. Perkins federal grant each year and several different state CTE grants. These grants have allowed us to put together the labs and curriculum our students take advantage of.”

Parks said the curriculum and lab that is available to academy students is extremely rare at the high school level. “Our engineering lab rivals those you would see at universities,” he said. “We have cutting edge industrial equipment such as Haas CNC milling machines, a bank of 3D printers, a Flow Mach 100 CNC water jet and a host of other tools at their disposal.”

Due to the caliber of courses, academy students graduate with up to 11 units of college credit for engineering courses through the school’s partnership with Norco College. They also earn professional certifications in SolidWorks CAD design, MasterCAM CNC programming, OSHA safety, Haas CNC Milling Machine Operations and can also earn coding certifications.

“The academy builds a real sense of family and support for the students, too,” Parks said. “The students in the academy know they have a team of teachers and staff that are always available to them. Our students and staff build some fantastic relationships. Those relationships help push our students to achieve their goals and challenge them to push themselves.”

Each year, 64 incoming freshmen are accepted into the program through an application process. They are divided equally into two cohorts: advanced studies or college prep. Parks said the difference being the math and science classes taken. “We specifically look at applicants’ math and science grades, as well as behavior and interest in engineering,” he said.

Kathy Parks is also the advisor for the school’s Society of Women Engineers & Scientists Club. This club is open to all female students interested in STEM careers, not just academy students. The girls have guest speakers, go on field trips where they meet STEM college students and professionals. They also have a pen pal program where they work with Andrea Rowe’s third grade class at Rice Canyon Elementary. That program culminates in a STEM Day where