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Ohio Hi-Point Career Center
The most rewarding part about working in school PR - particularly career technical education - is helping connect students' skills and interests to a particular career field. Ohio Hi-Point Career Center is a school of choice for students, and part of my role is to educate potential students and their families about the added educational value career tech can provide. It’s extremely rewarding to see students take that leap and jump into something they're passionate about and thrive in a hands-on environment. I love walking into our career programs and students are excited to show me how to build a diesel engine, draw blood on a patient, frame a wall or program a robot. Anytime I can capture authentic learning experiences from our students, I’m having a great day!
The most challenging part about working in school PR is elevating the perception of career technical education to match the value that career education provides students. Changing perception is a group effort and it starts with cultivating quality relationships with our partner school districts, business and community leaders, media partners and government officials. These partnerships are essential and allow us a platform - in conjunction with utilizing all the media tools at our fingertips - to promote all of the benefits of career tech and shine a spotlight on our students who ultimately are the real ambassadors for career tech.
My most fulfilling professional experience was creating a new way for students and families to experience career technical education in the middle of the pandemic. When in-person visits were not possible, I pitched an idea to our video company to create an interactive, Google-earth style virtual tour of our campus. My hope was students and families could experience OHP directly from their screens; they could “walk” the hallways and programs, and each program would have interactive graphics, student testimonial and alumni videos and additional information about the program. This was uncharted territory for both myself and our video production crew as something like this hadn’t been done in Ohio school districts before. The moment I hit “publish” on that first social media post promoting our virtual tour was an awesome feeling.
I don’t think it’s an emerging trend as it is an emphasis on bridging the convenience and ease of social media with the need for human connection. Students and families want to feel a part of a community and have authentic and genuine experiences. I’m excited to see how I can blend those together for our storytelling to be more impactful for students and families.