The high school senior drove a robot along the wide main hallway of the Killeen ISD Career Center.
The remote-controlled robot grasped a small stuffed dolphin in its claw and seemed to draw attention from the large group of assembling guests attending the Future Ready Expo.
Senior Josiah Rodriguez is proud of his school and its robotics program. He figures he tells someone most every day about his experiences building and programming robots in the Practicum course he’s taking.
It’s easy to understand his excitement.
“We get to build as well as complete our own programs,” he said. “We also drive drones. We learn and put together things as groups. We can get a certification to drive drones professionally.”
Now, he and his peers are learning to drive a Fanuc arm, a high-tech, remote-controlled industrial tool used in industrial factories.
“It’s very cool, very fun. It’s very interactive.”
Rodriguez plans to get a pair of master’s degrees and work as an engineer.
“I tell someone almost every day. I’m very proud of this program. It’s grown a lot over the years.”
Gazing into a myriad of potential futures, students and family members on Thursday took advantage of the opportunity to see the numerous academic options open for Killeen ISD high school students.
The KISD Future Ready Expo at the KISD Career Center attracted a huge number of participants, mostly current middle school students and their parents and guardians curious about the range of available career-focused choices.
Event photos are loaded at www.killeenisd.org/photos
Throughout the sprawling Career Center campus, students and teachers showcased the school’s unique offerings from welding and automotive to healthcare and animal science, architectural design, audio-visual, robotics, graphic design, culinary, firefighting and much more.
The options didn’t end there.
Participants also learned from representatives of Early College High School, Pathways Academic Campus, Fine Arts, Athletics, Advanced Academics, STEM, Multilingual Services and other district curricular areas.
There was more, still.
Central Texas College, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Junior ROTC and the military services all provided information.
Career and Technical Education Director Patrice Robinson was thrilled to see the crowd of participants and the enormous offering of presenters.
The expo was specifically promoted to eighth-graders in College and Career Exploration classes preparing to make their four-year high school plans, which is scheduled in coming weeks.
“The goal of the Future Ready Expo is to provide awareness of all the opportunities we provide,” said Robinson, listing the many options available.
“Our seventh-graders tour the Career Center, but that is really about all of their exposure. This provides more awareness for our families. They can linger and ask questions and see the different areas,” she said.
“The observations I’m making is that students are coming in with interest,” she said. “They took their interest inventories and made their top three choices. They are able to see and spread to the instructors about their top choices.”
On November 19 during the school day, elementary students will have a similar hands-on experience to get a feel for some of the options available to them in high school.
Junior Mariana Berry, a Career Center business marketing student said she is learning the skills she expects to use in her future career.
“Being in marketing will help me start my own business or help existing businesses,” she said. “I feel like this is a good place for high school. We focus on our endorsement and I like that. We learn more about what we want to do in our career.”
Future education and career planning information:
https://www.killeenisd.org/page/academic-advising-and-planning
KISD uses a student interest assessment called Naviance available here:
https://www.killeenisd.org/page/naviance