CHSS celebrates co-op students and host businesses with biannual breakfast
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
While there are myriad methods by which the members of humanity may show their gratitude to one another, in Huron County, there is no more sincere way to offer thanks than by putting on a breakfast. So it’s good news indeed that, after a single day’s snow delay, last week’s Co-op Supervisors’ Appreciation Breakfast at Central Huron Secondary School (CHSS) went off without a hitch. The school’s hard-cooking cafeteria crew came in at 5:30 a.m. to whip-up a first-class feast for all the co-op supervisors and students who participated in the most recent round of the program.
The early-morning meal’s master of ceremonies was CHSS Co-op Department Head Shane Taylor, who offered a warm welcome to all the employers and students who had gathered in the cafeteria to break their fast together. “Without all of you supervisors, we couldn’t do this,” Taylor extolled. “None of us would be here today without our placements, and we appreciate all the time and effort that you put in to take our students.”
Between bites of bacon and sips of coffee, a few CHSS students and supervisors spoke to The Citizen about their experiences. Through his placement at Great Lakes Mechanical, Jake Cullen learned a lot about what it takes to make it as a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) technician.
Not only has Cullen gained experience in all things HVAC-related, as an added bonus, he really enjoyed the experience. “It was really good! Great guys, and I learned a lot,” he said. “I liked it a lot more, because it’s hands-on. It’s right in front of you, so you can actually figure stuff out. You can, like, look at your mistakes and see what you did wrong, and then fix it.”
Cullen’s co-op experience was overseen by HVAC technician Jamie Hubert, whose credentials include a sheet metal licence, a G2 gas fitter’s licence, and a residential refrigeration licence - any one of which might be required during a day’s work. “We just install furnaces, air conditioners, troubleshoot basically any mechanical system in the house,” Hubert explained. He’s found that having a co-op student can also come in handy from time to time. “It’s nice, just being able to have that extra set of hands to go grab something. Or, if you're troubleshooting something, they can be on the other end of it, putting wires together or anything like that.”
In their short time working together, Cullen’s work ethic has already made a positive impression on Hubert. “He's a good kid that wants to learn, and he’s a quick learner, so it makes for a good environment every day.”
Cullen is planning to continue his education at Fanshawe College, and all the training with Hubert has given him a real leg-up. “You’re already that far ahead,” the aspiring technician explained. “Usually you have to wait, get a call from the school and they're usually pretty backed up. So this way, you get in early and then you have a head-start coming out of high school.”
Taylor also praised the school and its administrators for continuing to support the bi-annual breakfast fête. “If we can’t thank our employers, there’s no place for our students to go. So we try to spend as much money as we can to thank you,” he joked.
All joking aside, the meal included a number of subtle touches that captured the rich flavour of gratitude. There was no shortage of expertly scrambled eggs, and no need to choose between crispy rashers of bacon and snappy-skinned sausages - the dawn’s early-diners were encouraged to try both. The French toast was favoured by several of the visiting professionals, while others professed to favouring the hash brown potato patties over all the rest. Fresh fruit rounded out the meal, with coffee aplenty and an ample supply of available juice.
Charlotte Beacom has always been interested in helping others, so she chose to do her co-op training with the Personal Support Workers (PSWs) at Goderich Place Retirement Residence (GPRR). “I enjoyed getting out and being in a workplace, and getting to experience co-workers more,” she told The Citizen.
Jenni Arthur is the Assistant General Manager of GPRR. While GPRR has previously worked with young people from other schools, this was the first time they took on a CHSS student. Based on Beacom’s performance, they would be happy to take on another next time around. “She did great!” Arthur exclaimed. “She’s very helpful, always smiling and ready to help wherever she’s needed and learning new tasks… Charlotte started off with nursing, and then she did housekeeping,” she explained. “Often, in small retirement homes, or even medium-sized retirement homes, you do work in more than one department.”
Now that she’s experienced day-to-day life as a PSW, Beacom knows for sure it’s what she wants to do. “I’ll find a college program and then just continue,” she said confidently.
When 12th grade student Braelyn Dalton isn’t attending class or handling homework, she’s pursuing her dreams in the semi-secret, super cool secret lair of CHSS’s most globally-acclaimed filmmaking alumni over at Goderich’s Faux Pop Studios. Dalton succinctly summarized the backstory that led to her crossover issue with the rogue’s gallery over at Faux Pop. “I wanted to do, like, film post-production stuff, and I wasn't really sure that there was going to be anything around Huron County for that. But then, Mr. Taylor was like, well, there's this place. So I was like, well, that sounds interesting. So, that's kind of how that happened,” she expounded.
She’s found that there are a lot of perks to being Faux Pop’s part-time ward. “I enjoy it! I’ve been able to do a lot of practice work, and I've improved a lot of my skills. And I really enjoyed being able to use their resources. They have an Adobe account, so I could use Premiere and just play around. I've been working a lot on video editing. I've done a bit of Photoshop as well, but mostly sticking to the film editing. And special effects, and stuff like that…. There’s also been people that I’ve been able to shadow, and watch what they're doing, and it's just gotten to be really interesting!”
Taylor concluded his remarks by acknowledging the importance of the co-op program as a whole. “We’re helping our kids decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives, and we’re helping our community,” he said. “Huron County is known for agriculture, which is one of the reasons we use [the phrase ‘Plant a seed, start a future’]. It’s also known for a bit of a brain drain, where sometimes some of our people leave and don’t come back, but the co-op program does a phenomenal job of helping our students have a reason to come home.”
And that is one of the most ingenious things about the CHSS co-op program - it doesn’t just offer students an opportunity to see what kind of employment they want to pursue, it gives them the chance to experience the satisfaction of pursuing those career in their own communities, whether it be in an essential trade, as a crucial provider of care or as a cutting edge digital artist.