This week, educators from Eleva-Strum school district in Eleva, Wisconsin, visited Washington, D.C., to share their strategies for delivering engaging work-based learning in their CTE programs through an innovative, student-run manufacturing business.
During the trip, Eleva-Strum Principal Cory Kulig and Technical Education Instructor Craig Cegielski met with President Obama to share their ideas for replicating the school’s manufacturing program model, which allows students to fill real manufacturing orders through their CTE program. Students in the program market, create and ship the products to purchasing businesses, and earned more than $100,000 in the last year to reinvest in their school.
In addition to the meeting with President Obama, Kulig and Cegielski met with staff to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), where they outlined strategies that Congress can use to support innovative CTE programs like their own. A report from the Wisconsin-based WEAU News quoted Kulig saying:
“It’s filling that job skills gap and that’s one of the things we hold very important... We do that by creating innovative thinkers, problem solvers, and that’s primarily what our students are doing on a daily basis at Eleva-Strum.”
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