By By Lisa Tindell
news editor
The clang of hammers and the buzz of saws could be heard throughout Burnt Corn Creek Park Thursday afternoon as students and instructors churned out class projects as part of a demonstration day.
Escambia Brewton Career Technical Center Director Jane Henderson said the event achieved the goal it was intended to achieve.
Henderson said she hoped to make the event an annual affair giving students, instructors and the community a chance to interact.
Lee Bain, a former instructor in drafting and design, was on hand for Thursday’s event and said the courses taught at the center and across the county are ones needed for many reasons.
Henderson agreed citing a large percentage of high school students who won’t go on to receive a college degree. “Statistics show that about 80 percent of high school students won’t go to a four-year college,” Henderson said. “What we do helps to prepare those students with some kind of skill or trade that will make them attractive to industries that need skilled labor.”
William Findley, a welding student from W.S. Neal High School, said he chose to attend the career-tech class because of the lucrative job he hopes to get after graduation.
Drewquita Lanier, a junior at T.R. Miller High School, said her reasons for choosing to take Child Care at the EBCTC was simple — she loves children.
Although not every student who completes courses such as those taught at EBCTC work in the field, some are learning skills that will help them in their private life.
Robert Kimbro from T.R. Miller High School said he just wanted to see if he could learn how to be a welder.
One student is learning a skill that will help him to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Henderson said she’d put the teachers at EBCTC up against any teacher for their dedication to the students and to their crafts.