Career tech programs work within their own classes, but this does not stop them from working with others as well. Construction Trades students build projects for their own class. Light and Sound Technologies students practice setting the stage for different productions. Commercial Photography students take photos of happenings around the school to gain experience, but that is not all that these programs do.
Career techs work together significantly more than most people realize. From putting on shows together to marketing for one another, every program has helped another in some way.
“We work most closely with drama– Theatre Arts– we do a lot of stuff with their productions in the Black Box and then obviously they’re a part of our productions here in the theater,” Light and Sound Technologies teacher Anthony DePinto said. “Literally today we’re setting up some stuff for Puffs, the play, in the Black Box.”
Students within these classes work very closely together, as they are both vital to the productions put on by GlenOak.
“I always tell people that without the actors, our crew has nothing to do; and without the crew, there’s no lights for the actors, so we need both to work,” DePinto said.
As important as both of these career tech programs are to theatrical productions, Construction Trades is just as necessary in bringing these plays and musicals to life.
“We work a lot with Black Box Theatre, Sound Production and we work with Lighting and Sound production,” Construction Trades teacher Chance Bricker said. “It’s a chance for students to see the whole picture come together and the whole project be completed
Construction Trades students take time out of their class periods to build many of the sets used in productions that GlenOak puts on. After construction students build sets, many classes come together to paint the sets to make them show-ready.
“[During] the last two weeks before the shows, there will be like 80 people on stage; Construction Trades, Theatre Arts, art students,” DePinto said.” There will be people everywhere.”
In addition to all of these classes, Animation and Graphic Design students also help with shows, just in a different, less obvious way: marketing.
Marketing is used to get students into the audience of productions, which is an important part of student culture. Productions don’t exist without the audience.
“How much marketing do we do?” Animation and Graphic Design teacher Paula Patterson said. “Well, we just did all the Puffs stuff, we’re currently working on a measuring chart for the choir. We make the banners for the sponsors in the proscenium. We make the height posters, we do the sports bulletin board.”
Animation and Graphic Design also help and are helped by Commercial Photography. This career tech helps with many things around the school. The students are present with a camera at almost every notable event and work very closely with Animation and Graphic Design.
“We do a joint project that is about blacklight and creating imagery that usually ends up in the Akron Art Museum for a neon exhibit that they do,” Commercial Photography teacher Jeannene Mathis-Bertosa said. “Last Fall, our students from both programs had pieces that they collaborated on that were featured in a show in December at the Akron Art Museum.”
According to Mathis-Bertosa, this project is an incredible opportunity for students in both classes to have. It gives everyone a chance to excel in both their field and the fields of others that may be a bit out of their comfort zones.
Another career tech that works with others is Business. Business stays within its own field for the most part, but they do work with others on occasion.
“We really don’t do a ton of it (working with other career techs) right now, we probably should but we get so busy with our own stuff,” Marketing teacher Michael Nieporte said. “We do work with Patterson’s group (Animation and Graphic Design); they print all of our banners and whatnot. We’ve also contracted with Patron’s group (Video Production); they film our commercials for our businesses. It’s more of us contracting with others. They haven’t used our services a lot, but we use everybody else’s for a lot of things.”
Career techs do a lot of work outside of their own classes. Each and every one of them, whether directly mentioned in this piece or not, do so much for this school and everything that GlenOak does.
“We all are the best people that we can be,” Patterson said.
Next time that you see a post from Plain Local School District, watch a theatrical performance or see students filming on the sidelines of sports games, remember how much teamwork really goes into what you’re seeing. Remember the effort that career tech students put in every day.
