Showcase gives GACTC students chance to shine
Hundreds of family members, friends get up close look at hands-on curriculum
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Hundreds of staff, students and community members attended the second annual Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center Student Showcase, filling up all three parking lots for nearly the entire two-hour event Thursday night.
Students were invited to bring their family and friends into the school for a tour and to show them their program areas.
According to Interim Director Nicole Zernick, GACTC students always love an opportunity to show off the projects they have been tackling.
While the event itinerary remained largely unchanged from the first installment, Zernick said that the administration has made a concerted effort to get the word out to more students and their families.
"Our students are always really excited to show all the great things that they're doing in the classroom, all the skills they're learning and all the different types of equipment they've been using," Zernick said.
According to Zernick, the event is a way for students to "say thank you" to their parents for letting them attend and supporting their endeavors at the tech center.
Altoona Area School District freshman powersports and equipment technology student Brady Carmichael spent the event in the first-floor garage that serves as his classroom, showing off the latest projects to interested attendees.
Carmichael said that he loves attending GACTC and that he appreciates the shared humor with his fellow powersports students.
Hollidaysburg Area School District junior Jackson York and Altoona sophomore Chase Vanegdon spent the showcase across the garage bay in the Masonry Program workshop.
According to Vanegdon, he finds the masonry program fun, especially the hands-on components.
"It's very detailed work, very technical, and it takes a lot of focus," York said. "I love it a lot."
York recently completed a co-op placement with a local concrete contractor and said he hopes to use the skills he has learned to open his own business one day.
Claysburg-Kimmel School District senior Madison Colabove said she enjoys her cosmetology program. Specifically, the hair coloring, cutting and styling are some of her favorite parts.
"I like being productive, and I've always been really passionate about doing hair and all of that, so when I found out I could do it as a career, I was like, 'yeah I'm doing that,'" she said.
Assistant Principal Chelsea Gibbons estimated that the event doubled in attendance from the first showcase in spring 2024.
"It's not mandatory to come, our teachers just encouraged our kids to come back, and our students are just passionate about what they do and want to share that with their family," she said.
According to Gibbons, the showcase is also a way for students' family members to revisit the building, because they may have attended the GACTC in their youth.
"I've heard from a few different people 'wow this brings back memories,'" Gibbons said.
Making the showcase a family-friendly event helps with future student recruitment.
Seeing the younger siblings of current students at the showcase is an encouraging sight for school leadership.
"That's our goal. To have kids come through earlier helps plant that spark of what they want to do in the future," Gibbons said. "Having these opportunities to bring their siblings and to instill that desire to come here."
For added incentive, the school is running a car giveaway/raffle for current students, with the 2016 Ford Focus on display during the showcase.
The car was acquired from a local junkyard in "wrecked" condition, Gibbons said, and was fully restored by students in the various automotive programs over the course of the year.
Seniors can earn up to four raffle tickets each semester through good behavior, she said, with the final drawing in May.
Dental assistant teacher Andrea Lascoli helped her students set up tri-fold poster boards around the dental assistant program classroom to display their senior projects to showcase attendees.
Students could choose any topic they like, as long as it is dentistry-related, to prepare a presentation.
This helps give students' parents a better sense of what the day-to-day curriculum looks like in the program.
"(Tech school is) not like regular school, not only do they do book work, but it's also very hands-on," Lascoli said. "So when these parents come in and see, it's awesome to see how impressed they are."
Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.