On Friday, March 22, students from the San Mateo Union High School District who were in their second year of a Career Technical Education class (CTE) attended three sessions at the district office. The theme for this day was hospitality. On March 19, the theme was arts, media and entertainment and on March 29, the theme will be engineering. Each of these three sessions are designed to introduce students to the field of hospitality and lasted 40 minutes each. During the sessions, students either attended presentations given by professionals in the food industry, presentations from representatives of various schools in SMUHSD or had mock interviews with people working in the industry.

“My favorite session was listening to the presentations from the representatives of other schools because I got to see what the students from other schools were doing in their culinary classes and how the curriculums differed,” said Kyra Franco, a student in the culinary arts class.

CTE day is a requirement for all students in their second year of a CTE class and is a way for students to see how these topics apply to the workforce and how many use the same skills that they learn in class, in their careers. CTE day also allows students to make connections with professionals in their industries and prepare for the workforce.

“CTE day was an amazing opportunity to learn about different career paths while networking with various professionals and other students,” said Franco. “I really liked that [CTE day] gave us a chance to have conversations with both professionals and students, allowing us to gain valuable advice from different perspectives.”