Watsonville’s Diamond Technology Institute Honored

The school is the recipient of a Gold Medal for its work with the Career Choices Series curriculum and My10yearPlan.com, created by Educational Improvements, an award-winning instructional writer.

The Profession Selections program goals to assist college students, beginning of their ninth-grade 12 months, to create 10-year plans for his or her future schooling and profession objectives. 

Mindy Bingham, founder, and president of Educational Improvements who authored the curriculum mentioned that this system takes college students by means of a complete steering course of, working with counselors and instructors. The purpose is to organize them for extra than simply entering into faculty.

“It’s about asking, ‘What’s the endgame?’ Not simply whether or not you will get right into a prime faculty,” Bingham mentioned. “Analysis reveals that college students who’ve these plans are more likely to get to the place they wish to be. And faculties … are selecting college students who know what they wish to do after commencement.”

Diamond Tech is a Profession Technical Training (CTE) faculty underneath the purview of the Pajaro Valley Unified Faculty District, mixing tutorial schooling and profession coaching. All college students graduate with pathways into digital media arts, engineering, enterprise design or agricultural science.

Profession Selections and My10yearPlan.com are “basic” to Diamond Tech’s imaginative and prescient, mentioned teacher Ryan Richards. 

“We’ve requested children to present sincere suggestions the final couple of years … and over 90% reply positively when requested in the event that they really feel prepared for school and careers,” he mentioned. “That’s means above most excessive faculties. College students really feel empowered right here. They’ve solutions.”

Alumnus Angel Ortiz, who graduated from Diamond Tech in 2019, mentioned the college helped them put together for most of the programs at UC Merced.

“Many of the courses I’ve proper now are a evaluation of what I had [at Diamond Tech],” Ortiz mentioned. “I’ll ceaselessly thank them for making ready me for school.”

Richards mentioned that 70% of Diamond Tech college students final 12 months utilized to high schools and universities and that the profession planning they’ve adopted has been an enormous issue.

“A few of my favourite moments as a trainer are seeing these children get their admission letters,” he mentioned. “I’ve labored with many college students who’re first-generation going to school. This program has given them the potential to have that have.”

Diamond Tech is amongst 22 faculties throughout the nation which have been awarded a Profession Selections Medal for the 2020–2021 faculty 12 months, which introduced many unprecedented challenges to the schooling sector, together with the shift to distant studying and the necessity to attend to college students’ social-emotional well being.

Bingham mentioned that being awarded a Gold Medal signifies that a college is utilizing this system with “constancy.” Diamond Tech has executed this and extra, she mentioned, throughout a really difficult time.

“Diamond Tech is doing it proper—they’re very critical about this,” she mentioned. “They’ve executed a number of distinctive and artistic issues with this system.”

This features a collection of movies, which college students file and create to debate their time on the faculty and dealing with Profession Selections. Every scholar explains their very own 10-year plan, which incorporates every part from funds planning to school choice.

Senior Adriana Jimenez mentioned she appreciates Diamond Tech providing so many various sorts of courses. Not solely are college students anticipated to take primary programs, however they will additionally join electives. 

“You get to discover a number of choices,” Jimenez mentioned. “My time right here … I noticed I wish to go into nursing. Diamond Tech helped me create a timeline for that. They make it easier to put together to your future.”

Fellow Senior Gordon Xiao had an identical expertise.

“I actually like that this faculty provides you numerous pathways you possibly can take,” he mentioned. “They actually go into element about your future, like what your objectives are and the way your future funds suits into that. After being right here, I’ve a plan … I wish to turn into a pharmacist.”

Richards mentioned that the college receiving the Gold Medal is a “actually large honor.”

“Everybody, my colleagues and the scholars have been working so laborious,” he mentioned. “It means rather a lot to get this recognition.”