Engineering Academy Students to Benefit from $133,000 Grant

Hello SSVT Community,

Running vocational programs requires current technology and equipment and adequate supplies to give students the best experiences possible for the short time they are in high school.

Due to budget limitations, SSVT often looks for grant opportunities.  Grants provide funds from outside sources, allowing schools to grow and modernize.  It is not easy to get grant money because there are typically many schools and organizations who compete for this money.

I think this is important to share because it underscores our excitement when we learned that SSVT was awarded a $133,000 Massachusetts Life Sciences Award from the Mass Life Sciences Center.  Here is a full copy of a press release issued from SSVT on the grant award.

The students who will benefit from the grant are our Engineering Academy students. The Engineering Academy includes students in Precision Machine Technology, Drafting and Electronics.

Congratulations to Electronics instructor Mr. Barba for writing the grant.  It was a lot of work!

Below is the write-up and picture from the January 18, 2015 issue of the  Boston Globe South section.

"The South Shore Vocational Technical High School in Hanover has received a $133,000 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, an organization dedicated to supporting innovation in the life sciences in Massachusetts. Administrators at the school announced that they plan to use the money to jump-start the school’s 11th- and 12th-grade engineering curriculums and to introduce students to real-world prototype manufacturing processes. “It’s going to allow us to expand our shop and to buy equipment to teach students premanufacturing processes,” Vincent Barba, the school’s electronics department head, said of the grant. He said he also hopes to expand the school’s relationship with electronics companies, which provide excess and obsolete components for the students to work with.

Electronics students Brittany Ceurvels, Nathan Tavares, Richie Lobo, and Madeline Long,
with instructor Mr. Johnson

This extra effort helps to keep our technical programs on the cutting edge!

---Mr. Hickey

Congratulations to Cosmetology Students Passing Their State Board Tests

Hello SSVT Community,

One of the career activities that makes SSVT unique is that our students can earn third party industry credentials during their high school years, thus making them more marketable when searching for jobs, and accelerating their path up the career ladder of their choice.  Our Cosmetology students are allowed to take the State Cosmetology Board Exam once they have accrued enough hours of practice and theory.  

We are thrilled to congratulate Alicia St. Amour, Taylor McCarthy, Samantha Swanson, Alison Wamness, Alysia Caparotta, Nick Bunker, Morgan Reardon and Michelle Long for achieving this goal!  

Our Cosmetology instructors did a great job celebrating their students' accomplishments by putting together a display on the bulletin board outside the CM shop.  Check it out!  

Congratulations!

--Mr. Hickey

Concession Stand Update

Hello SSVT Community,

Last week, on Tuesday, the thermometer read 18 degrees and our Carpentry seniors were out in the elements making steady progress on the concession stand.  Here are a few photos.  The posts you see in front of the concession stand will support the overhang of the concession stand roof.

CP Seniors Brandon Teixeira and Anthony Spicuzza
with CP instructor Mr. Burke (Back Left)

CP Senior Dominic Varrasso is up on staging
working to cover the plywood seams

The CP students learn how to work in these weather conditions and continue to make great strides for this on campus project. Great work!


---Mr. Hickey

HVAC-R Program Earns Department of Public Safety Approval

Hello SSVT Community,

Earlier this year, our HVAC-R program was visited by officials from the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety (DPS), the agency that oversees oil burner and refrigeration licensure.

As a result of the DPS visit and review of our HVAC-R program curriculum, the DPS has approved our HVAC-R program. This means that students who complete the rigorous course of student and who wish to pursue further training can earn hours toward their oil burner and refrigeration license, which is a logical next step for our HVAC-R graduates.

The specific components of the program approval are:

Shop/Work Experience
Practical Piping Work	140 hours
Practical Electrical Work	140 hours
Practical Sheet Metal Work	100 hours
Practical Refrigeration & A/C  Work	700 hours
Practical Heating (Gas & Oil) Work	270 hours
Classroom/Educational Theory Experience
Massachusetts Electrical Code Training	100 hours
ASHRAE Refrigeration Code	180 hours
Sheet Metal Calculation & Design	30 hours
ASHRAE Air Conditioning & Heating	140 hours

During these hours of instruction, our HVAC students get considerable hands on practice and related theory.  It goes without saying that, in order to earn these hours, students need to maintain excellent attendance and demonstrate achievement in the program curriculum!

For HVAC-R graduates, this is just another opportunity that awaits them when they enter the workforce and seek to advance themselves in their chosen field.

---Mr. Hickey

Community College Articulation Agreements Offer SSVT Students College Credit for High School Work!

Hello SSVT Community,

For several years, vocational students have been allowed to use their high school vocational credits at Massachusetts community colleges to count for college credit as well.  It only makes sense for a vocational high school graduate to skip over the introductory courses that have been mastered in high school, and allow the student to save some money and continue to be challenged in post-secondary studies.

A few years back, the state community colleges made this process much more efficient by establishing statewide articulation agreements for students who graduate from particular vocational programs.

So for instance, an agreement that applies to HVAC-R would cover our HVAC-R students who wish to attend Massasoit and any other community college in MA that offers a HVAC-R program.

In November 2014, the state community colleges agreed to a new slate of articulation agreements in Hospitality Management; Business Technology; Health Assisting; Medical Assisting, Carpentry, HVAC-R and Machine Tool Technology.  

At SSVT these new agreements would apply to students in Allied Health, Carpentry, HVAC and PMT.

When coupled with the previously existing articulation agreements from a few years back, it means SSVT graduates will have an opportunity to access articulated community college credits if they are majoring in:

Allied Health

Automotive

Carpentry

CIT

Culinary

Drafting

HVAC-R 

PMT

I would urge students to evaluate their options with their parents and their guidance counselors.  This might be a worthwhile option and a part of your career plan.  

For more information, take a look at the links below:

Here is the link to the Mass Community College website:  

On this page there is a checklist showing what our students would need to do if they wanted to pursue this option.  

Good luck!

---Mr. Hickey

Metal Fabrication & Welding Juniors Learn About Apprenticeship Opportunities

Hello SSVT Community.

Students in many of our programs are being trained in skills that make them excellent candidates for apprenticeship opportunities after graduation. Apprenticeships are paid working and learning opportunities that can lead to industry credentials and excellent wages and benefits.

Last week, our Metal Fabrication & Welding instructor Mr. Mello took his 11th graders to Local 17 in Dorchester to learn more about its apprenticeship program.  This is a competitive process where the Local accepts about 50 people per year (ages 18-45). Apprentices learn advanced trade skills in the classroom and then go to work in an alternating week schedule.  It is clear that our graduates would be strong candidates for these types of opportunities, but it requires a serious commitment!

Mr. Mello filled me in on the different apprenticeship options and opportunities for our students (and this is not necessarily limited to MFW students).  Here is what Mr. Mello told me:

Ultimately for a student to decide which union they would like to join really depends on what type of work that student enjoys. With the MFW shop, students can also join Local 7 Ironworkers Union, Local 537 Pipefitters union, Local 4 Elevator Union, and also Local 104 Linemen's Union. All of these unions need welders and fabricators. Some of the above unions will also allow the students to learn other trades as well. (For example, Local 104 works with high tension lines (electricity over 500 volts). In situations like this they generally have weld aluminum pipes that carry the current because the copper wire cannot handle the resistance running through it.)

What benefits students from a vocational school versus a traditional high school is that they have already gained 3.5 years of experience. Unions like this because the students tend to catch on quicker and retain more making it easier for them to produce quality workers. 

Vocational students also know what is expected of them on day one: Showing up on time, not calling in sick because you have the sniffles, knowing how to read a ruler, knowing how dangerous machinery is and what to look for on the safety side. All of these little things stick out during the interview/selection process.

Our MFW Junior class sporting Local 17 T-shirts

Students tour the facility

SSVT Graduate Ryan Lofgren (MFW Class of 2011) is in the
Local 17 Apprenticeship Program.  Good luck Ryan!

Apprenticeships are an excellent example of post-high school learning and working that does not involve college enrollment. Not everyone needs to enroll in college, but we all need to get additional training in some form to advance our skills!

I urge students to ask your vocational teachers and guidance counselors about apprenticeship opportunities!

---Mr. Hickey

Culinary Arts Students Appear on Local Cable Show

Hello SSVT Community,

Congratulations and thanks to Marylouise Jepsen and James Andrasy for appearing a couple of weeks ago on Whitman and Hanson Local Cable show "Cross Talk" with host Kevin Tocci.

Marylouise and James discussed their experience with choosing Culinary and how much they have learned over the past few years.  We even touched upon the Culinary Arts Pie Day tradition and how much works goes into offering pies to the community just before Thanksgiving.

Marylouise and James also talked about their interests and school activities and their future plans for college and work.  They are great ambassadors for our school!

Suggestion: If you have trouble sleeping, then be sure to watch the segments where I am talking...

The show can be found at http://ssvotech.blogspot.com/

Thanks again to Marylouise and James and our Culinary teachers and students!

---Mr. Hickey