Exploring Sage Oak's Innovative CTE Programs: Entrepreneurship and Information Technology

Exploring Sage Oak's Innovative CTE Programs: Entrepreneurship and Information Technology

In this episode of Sage Studio, host Tiffiny Webster is joined by Brandy Yurkosky and Jared Tourse from Sage Oak's high school department to discuss the school's cutting-edge Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs focusing on Entrepreneurship and Information Technology. Brandy, an education advisor since 2018, introduces the new Entrepreneurship One class designed for students interested in business who might already be running their own ventures. The program provides foundational skills, progressing through Entrepreneurship Two, culminating in internships and certifications. Jared, with a background in Math and eSports, outlines the Info and Tech pathway, which includes an Intro to Computer Science and an AP Computer Science class. Students can also engage in internships within Sage Oak's IT department, gaining real-world experience. Both pathways offer diverse opportunities, field trips, and integrative learning experiences, combined with community and academic collaboration. Recommended for students and parents interested in the growing fields of business and technology.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions
00:39 Brandy's Role and Entrepreneurship Program
01:47 Jared's Role and IT Program
03:10 Entrepreneurship Program Details
07:17 IT Program Details
08:43 Internship Opportunities
10:30 Future Plans and Opportunities
15:27 Getting Involved and Final Thoughts


 For enrollment information, contact jtourse@sageoak.education or visit the Sage Oak website at www.sageoak.education.

Thank you for listening to the Sage Studio podcast presented by Sage Oak Charter Schools and hosted by Tiffiny Webster, M.A.Ed. We invite you to follow the show and leave your review below. Sage Oak Charter Schools is an independent study nonclassroom based TK-12 personalized learning public charter school serving students in Southern California. Visit sageoak.education for more information.

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Transcript

0:14

Welcome to another episode of Sage Studio. I'm Tiffiny Webster, and today I am joined with Brandy. Hey, Brandy from our high school department. So great to have you here. And Jared as well. Hello, Jared. And today we are going to be talking all about the high school CTE program about, Business and Information and Technology and I cannot wait to hear everything that they have got going on. Brandy, Introduce yourself to our families that may not know you. Tell us a little bit about your role here with Sage Oak and with this new program. I'm Brandy Yurkosky I've been an education advisor at Sage Oak since I think 2018. I teach Government and Economics. And this year I am piloting an Entrepreneurship One class. The main reason that we're starting Entrepreneurship One is that I found that I had a lot of students on my roster who either were interested in business or they were actually running their own businesses already. this course gives me an opportunity to provide some structure to their knowledge. they have the idea, they have the motivation. They have the drive, but they've got to be able to do finances and learn how to communicate and all of those real life skills that we're going to try to bring to students to make their business better, to grow their businesses or to give them the confidence to take that step from an idea to a business. So good and so important to learn for really any business that they go into. Now, Jared, your lane is a little bit different. Tell us a little bit about your role here at Sage Oak and what you bring to this program. My name is Jared Toures and I was a Math teacher for many years I also started an e sports, club. it's a Sage Oak club, but we're also competing outside of Sage Oak and then I transitioned last year to Computer Science. Last year we piloted it and we launched with AP Computer Science. And so now we have an intro to Computer Science class. We have an AP Computer Science class. And we also launched this year, we have a cohort of a small group of juniors and seniors, and they are in, an internship program. And so that program is interning with Sage Oaks, very own IT department. And so these students meet weekly and they get credit for the class. it would be considered like work experience, but they get to work hands on with our IT department. And they get to see, the day to day activities and work on, what they would possibly do in the future if they chose that as a profession. It's amazing that our IT department was willing to. Lend their time. I mean, what an amazing experience. It's an Information Technology and Entrepreneurship pathway for students. Brandy's side of it is more the Entrepreneur side. Yours at the moment is more of the Info and Tech. So let me get back to you for a second, Brandy. And let's talk a minute about the entrepreneurship side of things. How did you come to, start this Entrepreneurship program? As far as like your background and what you bring to this subject matter. Okay. Before I became an educator, I worked for several years in the financial services industry. my role at that point was to, open new accounts for, financial advisors. I worked as a trader for mutual funds, stocks and bonds, for a while. I facilitated transfers between brokerage firms. So I learned a lot of the back office skills involved in financial services. And then I took the qualifying tests to become a financial advisor myself. But I chose to pivot to education. I just thought, if I could do it, having a liberal arts background, if I could make it in a business world, so could my students. And so I just want to open up that world to them a little bit and start with entrepreneurship, because like I said, a lot of them are already interested in those areas. So what is the progression of the courses, that the students take when they enroll in the program? Right now, we're starting out with Entrepreneurship One. So students who want to continue next year, we'll go to Entrepreneurship Two. And that'll be good for students who are running their business. We're going to have, check ins with them and things to help them track their business, incorporate what they're learning in class and how they can use it to support their business. Students who aren't running businesses will have simulation businesses like food trucks or, spas that they can practice running After that, I'd like to get into internships with local businesses or possibly within our school because we do have a business services and a marketing department within our school. So I'd love to see some opportunities open up there. we have some certification opportunities as well. So students can get certificates in Microsoft office, Google suite and entrepreneurship, small business that they can take wherever they want to go. whether it's college, whether it's straight to a job, they should have some skills that they can put on their resume and hopefully get some employment right after high school if they need it. I love that idea. So Entrepreneurship One, it's all about like concept idea. What does it take to put a business together? What is branding? What is marketing? All of these kind of basics. And then Entrepreneurship Two will be like, let's put that into action either through a business if the students have something that they've started or an internship or a possible business simulation. Okay, cool. All right. That sounds like a really great pathway. Now, Jared, does your pathway, is it separate from the entrepreneurship pathway or do they start an entrepreneurship and then head your direction? How does that work? Yeah, all the CTE pathways that we have at Sage Oak, they're all individual. The cool thing is that sometimes our field trips and various activities just naturally overlap. we get to combine things. Like we have a cool field trip coming up, at the Garner Holt Institute, And then, there's a lot of cool things that some of our local colleges that they have good programs like Brandy just had a cool field trip on Tuesday to CSUSB to the business department. Oh, cool. And, CSUSB also has a cool Computer Science program as well. I love that. That is so great that those two things overlap. And I actually think Jessica Perri mentioned that the art students went to Garner Hall as well for an animatronics field trip. I don't know if that was the same field trip or something different. Yeah, that's going to be, that's our combined field trip coming up. So it's, Entrepreneurship. Information Tech and Art as well. So we're all joining forces and heading to Garner Holt's, to learn about, not only the arts, but the tech that goes into it. And then Garner Holt started the production company as a small business. So getting to see kind of what is possible. I mean, he grew up loving animatronics and building it as a kid. And then he actually took what he loved and made a business out of it. And that's entrepreneurship right there. I'm excited to take my students there. I think that's exciting when they can really see things firsthand, but also see the overlap how they might, have a passion for art, but then they can see how that can translate into a business or they can really see that the tech is involved. Jared, tell me a little bit about the pathway for your students. What does year one look like for the students in the info and tech pathway? The I T CTE pathway could look like an intro to Computer Science class if they have little to no background, or if they have a little bit, and especially if they have already taken Algebra one. Then they could jump right into the AP Computer Science class and it's AP as in you can take the class for the GPA boost and it looks great on your transcript, the AP exam is in two parts, and this is what's unique in the AP world, is that you submit your project, which is code that you wrote, and then you submit a document, that's highlighting certain parts of your code and then you're tested on your individual project on your code that you've highlighted. As the written exam. So it is in two parts and I want to say it's 30 percent your project and then 70 percent the written exam that you do in person so that in that part, it's unique, the kids really have a hundred percent ownership of the test and what they submit and each person will be tested individually based on what they submitted. Yeah, it's really it's quite an exam. It's very comprehensive. I'm sure it's nerve wracking for both you and the students. But as you mentioned, it can really give them a nice boost on those college applications or even on job applications as well. Now tell me a little bit about the internship. So I love that. You worked out an opportunity for the students to work with our own Sage Oak IT department. What are some of the things that they're learning or what are some of the things that they are doing in this internship? I got to give 100 percent credit to Laura, our assistant principal and Tracy, Laura worked really hard in making this happen. hats off to her. She did an outstanding job and she's driving a lot of the CTE programs. She's supporting and helping us get them off the ground. her and Brad Booker, who's the head of our IT department. really did a lot of background work to make this happen. And so students, if you're a student that's interested in this, what you could look forward to is we meet weekly and it's really flexible. Right now it's on Fridays but if you miss the class, it's recorded. it's just like a little snapshot like 30 minutes to an hour of, a task or an ongoing project. So just to get them off the ground, we just wanted to establish the rest of the resume building skill. Coral, our wonderful counselor came in and helped the kids get off the ground with a resume. after that, we're moving into a project based style of learning directly connected with Brad, and he's going to be setting up various projects where kids can be solving building or trying to isolate issues and different things like that. it would be modeling what the IT world would be. So one day, you know, There's nothing going on and you're just monitoring that everything's smooth. And then the next day, everything hits the fan. And so Brad's just putting together some projects for the students to navigate those in a real world sense. And so that's really cool. I love the collaboration that's happening here. It is so great to see that the different departments are working with one another. I just think it's so important to really highlight that community is not Just something that happens outside on socials or on field trips But it really is being highly integrated into the program to really serve the students, the very best that you can I bet the students are loving it Yeah, and if I may add, one of the coolest parts of the internship is Laura and Brad, set up a lunch and learn. they worked really hard in scheduling times, and the students are invited to come to the IT office and actually do a walkthrough and see what they're doing and how they do it. But and then they get to sit down and eat as well and ask questions and really get the hands on full experience. And so that we have two of those scheduled for the first semester. The first one is going to be just an exploration and observation. And then the last one is going to be a follow up at the end of the first semester where the students actually present and share what they learned in their experience. Brandy, you mentioned too, that you are interested in kind of growing the program, bringing on some internships. What are the types of internships that you hope to bring to the program as the program grows? If we're working within the school, I've already, I have Tim O'Brien from business services coming to speak to the students, in a couple of weeks. next semester we'll be doing a lot of marketing units. so I'm hoping somebody from marketing can come by and, from there to see, within our school, what opportunities can we provide? And then, I'm always asking kids are there small businesses that you are familiar with that you would like to get to know more about. We actually have a field trip coming up in November where we're going to visit a local coffee shop in Redlands. It's a coffee distribution center and a coffee shop together. And they, really believe in sustainable practices and giving back to the community. So that's going to be an opportunity for students to see, from that perspective, what is possible and then think about the ethical dilemmas that come up with business and how local businesses have been dealing with that and having a mission to go along with your business. So it's going to be exciting to have them see what's possible and then make those relationships. I love that this, program is really preparing students for that real, life work pathway should they, be ready to launch businesses when they graduate. Now, you mentioned that you went to UCSB. Is that right? Was that one of the college tours We just got back from Cal State San Bernardino. Oh, Cal State San Bernardino, okay. So And that school is really great because they are one of the only schools in the state that has a school of entrepreneurship. Meaning they have business classes, they have different, areas in business you can specialize in, but they actually have a school of entrepreneurship. And the director met with our students and talked to them. Probably, we probably spent about 45 minutes just like, Answering their questions and telling them about the program. And he said, part of being an entrepreneur is taking risks. And so you have to be able to deal with. whatever those risks entail. my students were like, It's okay to fail. You're going to learn from that and you're going to take it to the next level. no entrepreneur is a hundred percent. awesome all the time, like everybody deals with failure and then they just get better from it. So I really love that, open mindset about it and, the willingness to just support others. I feel like the entrepreneurship community in general. When they hear that you're a student, you want to have your own business, they just seem to be like, Hey, I know this person who can help you. I know this person who's done this let's make those connections. It was really cool to just see that on an academic level and know that students who want to pursue this in college, they have a Cal State that they can attend. And so I think that's really great for students to have that opportunity. And that sounds like that was a really valuable experience for them. And again, as you said, like they're on such a pathway in high school with just trying to get it right. And then entrepreneurship, it's this whole other world where you're like, You're just trying to experiment. And that is a mind shift, right? So that you aren't really saying anything. It's just like you're experimenting and data, and then from the data you pivot. And it's that cycle over and over again. So yeah, I could see that would be an important mind shift for the students to take. Jared, when it comes to the info and tech side, what programs have you looked into or will the students get a chance to learn more about in your program? there's this whole idea of understanding pseudocode that you should be able to take your skills, your skillset, your tool belt, and you should be able to show up at any site. And so we teach the importance of understanding pseudocode so you don't get locked into, I only do Python. I only do Java. So you got to have a lot of fluidity. You both mentioned that students can start into these programs, even if they don't have a lot of skills, if they're just kind of curious about learning more about entrepreneurship or curious about learning more about Computer Science. So if someone wanted to get involved with this program, Jared, where would be the best place that students should go to get more information? I would ask your EA, your education advisor, if you're in high school and if you're not in high school you can go to Sage Oaks website and I believe we have a CTE dashboard. If you're a prospective student or a younger student, I know that within Sage Oak, we have Oak School classes, and I believe that some of those Oak School classes touch on some coding. I have some awesome 9th graders that came in with some skills already, and they're doing cool stuff. And they could touch base that way. And if you'd like to, get a hold of Our eSports program, you can reach out directly via email and I can set you up with our meetings and times. Brandy, for the entrepreneur program, open to freshmen as well? Can students that are just getting into high school, can they be part of the entrepreneurship program or do they have to wait until they're down the line a little bit? Nope, they can start as freshmen. They can go through the two years. They can then have their, an internship or they can do a capstone project after that. And then we have, Future Business Leaders of America club. We're, launching that this month and We have, I think the whole CTE department is creating a CTE ambassador program for all the different pathways. So students who are juniors and seniors who have done their classes and are really interested can be a part of that team. There'll be like student representatives of our CTE program. So there's a lot of opportunities for students to, learn those basic skills in the early classes and really just run with that, even starting in ninth grade. I love it. So good. All right, parents, I will be sure to link that information in the show notes that you are interested in looking into this program for your student, that you can go to sageoak.education and find out more information about how to get your student involved in the Info Tech and Entrepreneurship CTE programs that we are now offering at Sage Oak. Jared and Brandy, Thank you so much for joining me today and be sure to keep us updated. We'll see you on the next one.