The skills that 21st-century learners need to acquire are problem solving, creativity, analytic thinking, collaboration, communication, ethics, action, and accountability; yet few academic classes are able to provide meaningful opportunities for students to develop these skills in a cohesive process. Careers and Technical Education (CTE) in general and entrepreneurship classes like TREP$ in particular are ideal opportunities to provide students with authentic opportunities.
Entering my fourth year of teaching high school students, I now feel ready to begin graduate studies in economics and education policy or economics and workforce development so that I might earn a seat at the education policy table and add a CTE voice to the conversation.
From my earliest years as a department store clerk, then training trainers and end-users, and now teaching high school, you might say I am completing a circle, working with the same general demographic for more than 25 years.
Instead of studying economics at Vassar or Mt. Holyoke, I graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology, S.U.N.Y. and worked in fashion buying and merchandising until Mr. Campeau bought Federated Department stores and eliminated assistant buyers across all stores. I then landed a job with a division of Toshiba where I worked in both pre- and post-sales support for retail technologies. Much of my time was dedicated to training and writing system documentation, with an occasional white paper explaining why a customer needed functionality and how it should work from keystrokes at the point-of-sale to reporting at the back of the house. Pairing my early professional years working in retail with my degree, I was exceptionally well prepared for the job at Toshiba and went on to advance my retail technologies career with Linens ’N Things, then SASI (now a unit of S.A.P.) and then Gristede’s, Inc. (GFI).
While dedicating a few years at home to raising twins, I served in several volunteer positions with parenting organizations, home & school organizations, municipal committees and scouting. The job that really sparked my interest was facilitating the Trep$ after school discovery program. It brought together my experience in marketing and training, with my passion for fashion (the way we live, not just clothes), and prompted me to complete the PRAXIS exams for three certificates of eligibility (Family & Consumer Science: textiles, fashion and interiors; Marketing Education; and Business Education: Finance, Economics & Law). My first teaching position was at Hillcrest Academy South.
Hillcrest Academy South (HAS) is an alternative high school run as part of the Union County Educational Services Commission. Student enrollment is drawn from Elizabeth High School and limited to 96 students. Class sizes are limited to twelve students so that an exceptionally high level of support can be offered to each student. One of the school’s innovations was to replace homeroom with Life Skills so that all students have an opportunity to demonstrate the creative, critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills needed to function successfully as both global citizens and workers in diverse organizational cultures.
In cooperation with the Supervisor of CTE at Elizabeth Public Schools, I was able to hybridize the Introduction to Computer Applications class so that Google Sheets was utilized while teaching Personal Financial Literacy, standard 9.1, to optimize students development of analogue and digital skills and strategies that promote personal and financial responsibility related to financial planning, savings, investment, and charitable giving in the global economy. We similarly married Google Docs with Career Awareness, Exploration and Preparedness, standard 9.2 engaging students in writing resumes, college essays & applications, and letters of introduction. We are currently combining Google Slides with CTE standard 9.3.12.BM, to develop effective written and oral communication skills for creating, expressing and evaluating information resources to accomplish specific occupational tasks through public speaking, research and multi media presentations. I was also able to add Business Organization and Management, providing a foundation of understanding of the business world and established business principles and practices, along with the knowledge needed to become conscientious and wise consumers.
I thought I was on a straight path, but my choices have brought me full circle: Checking the box for home economics on the SUNY college application to major in Fashion Marketing at Fashion Institute of Technology instead of economics at Mt. Holyoke or Vassar, then Canadian venture capitalist Campeau’s purchase of Federated Department Stores and subsequent elimination of assistant buyers across all stores which precipitated my leap into retail technology as the world prepared for open architecture operating systems and then Y2K, then volunteering for education and youth organizations, and now teaching high school. I have returned to economics with a few very specific questions: How to reconcile the role of public education with the needs of industry? Shouldn’t we be preparing students with the necessary skills to achieve their potential? Shouldn’t we be preparing students to fully participate now and in the future in the social, economic, and educational responsibilities and opportunities of our local, state, national and global communities?
Christine Heinicke 