Students from various Columbia County high schools competed on Friday morning to show off their skills and knowledge from Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) classes in an annual district competition.
With many sponsors like ARP and Augusta Technical College, county staff and teachers were thrilled to witness more than 300 students utilize their skills by tackling timed challenges in the third annual CTAE Workforce Showcase Competition.
“This is the best thing to ever happen to the Columbia County School District, because it’s an opportunity for kids that are not college bound and looking for a great vocation,” said Columbia County Board of Education member David Alalof. “This is a lot of entrepreneurship in different areas … it’s amazing.”
Throughout the competition, the county’s 25 pathways were represented by students as local businesses served as judges.
“Our students learn early that there are other options – by the time they’re freshmen in high school,” said Alalof. “They can find something that’s worthwhile to them.”
Pathways represented included agriculture, engineering, robotics, graphic design, health sciences, welding, law enforcement, marketing, ROTC, teaching and more.
Columbia County Director of Internal Services Leanne Reece said the county started the CTAE competition in 2021 to give students a local, free and hassle-free opportunity to compete that could positively impact the community.
“These students work hard all year long and most of them had to travel to regional or state competitions because there was nothing local,” she said. “This doesn’t cost them a dime and then all these local businesses could see what our kids could do, because these businesses are hungry for workers.”
Reece said she also believes providing other opportunities encourages non-academically gifted students to remain interested and motivated in high school, because it gives them an area to excel outside of traditional studies.
“Not all kids want to go to a four-year college, and there are a lot of other careers available out there to them,” she said. “So this also shows what is out there for them beyond high school … I just hope they feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, and know that the community cares about them.”
While 2023’s competition added a culinary cupcake challenge to the mix, this year’s showcase incorporated an electrical portion that allowed even more students to participate in the event.
As many businesses participate and help sponsor the annual event, Columbia County School District’s Director of CTAE Brooks Smith said the competition gave students the chance to present their impressive skills, which could possibly produce job opportunities.
“This is where businesses actually get to see students demonstrate their work-ready skills and identify who might be a good employee for them,” said Smith.
Smith said the competition also advertised and informed the general public of the many opportunities and certifications the county offers to students to prepare them for college and joining the workforce.
“There’s such a wide variety of skills here today that the county is in need of, and a lot of the community is just not aware that these programs are available to high school students,” he said.
In addition, Smith said having different career classes for high schoolers allows them to narrow down what specialty they would like to pursue after graduation.
“When you go off to college or post-secondary education as an undecided major, that’s a very expensive venture,” he said. “But these types of classes and work-based learning experiences hopefully gives them direction, so they actually have a destination in mind.”
Business junior pathway student Montse Rivera from Evans High School said she thoroughly enjoyed the competition and loved meeting the county’s other businesses and marketing-oriented students.
“You learn about other businesses … and it’s really interesting,” she said. “This encouraged me to keep striving towards the business pathway and to keep going.”
Participating senior health sciences student Meghan Nadkarni from Evans High School said she was grateful for her pathway teacher and the specialized classes, because it allowed her to develop a plan for college without the stress of changing majors.
“Without this pathway, I’d probably be lost,” she said. “This pathway helped introduce so many new ideas about the medical field, and I changed my ideas about it and I feel like it really led me in the right direction.”
As a result of the county’s healthcare pathway, Nadkarni said she plans to attend Augusta University and continue her journey in the field with a degree in biology with a concentration in pre-med.
“This is the first year I’ve done this competition and I regret not doing it any other year, because I loved it and had a lot of fun doing it,” she said. “You have to step outside your comfort zone sometimes, just like you do in the real world.”
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education, lifestyle and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
