Colleagues,
We are most pleased to share this terrific story published this morning in “The Standard-Times”. Chapter 74 vocational technical students learning the skills necessary for our future Massachusetts skilled workforce.
Learning by “doing”, while simultaneously assisting the community and young learners!
This is what occurs across the Commonwealth in our Chapter 74 vocational technical & agricultural schools.
David
Voc-Tech students build pavilion for outdoor learning at Our Sisters’ School
Kathryn Gallerani The Standard-Times
Our Sisters’ School in New Bedford is building a new outdoor classroom with the help of vocational students.
- The 36-foot by 36-foot pavilion will provide shelter for the entire student body and will be used for classes and events.
- The project provides carpentry students with real-world job experience and benefits the community.
The outdoor classroom at Our Sisters’ School in New Bedford used to be a parking lot.
"Now, after remediation and a lot of family involvement and creative thinking, we were able to transform the space into an outdoor classroom," Our Sisters’ School Head of School Sarah Herman said.
The soon-to-be pavilion, that used to be a tent, is being constructed with help from Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School students.
"We love that we have students learning to build at a school creating a space for students to learn at school," she said. "Hopefully by the end of this school year we will celebrate our refreshed, updated outdoor classroom. We wanted the best we could possibly do for our amazing students."
Herman said the students are excited about it and are probably just as curious as the adults are about what it will ultimately look like and how they will use it to the fullest. "We really wanted to offer summer programming that first summer of the COVID year, so the tent was our best effort," she said. "It has been many years of planning and thinking, preparation and coordination to select this beautiful post and beam kit that was delivered."
Welcoming the carpentry students
Director of Operations Jill Hachem, also the pavilion project manager, said it’s exciting to be getting closer to having a permanent structure they can utilize all year round and not have to rely on a tent for shelter.
After having issues with the weather and stopping work for safety reasons, she said she’s hopeful the outdoor classroom will be completed by the end of March and the awning installed in June.
Herman said the idea is that they will be able to fit the whole school of 72 students underneath the new structure which measures 36-feet-by 36-feet.
Our Sisters’ School, located at 145 Brownell Ave., New Bedford, is a tuition-free all-girls middle school for grades 5-8.
Sisters’ school teams with voc-tech
When the administration was approached about the project, the decision was made that it would be a good learning experience for the students and an opportunity to help out the community, off campus carpentry teacher Frank Goncalves said.
"It’s a great real-life experience for them," he said. "This is what a job site is going to be like for them if they get into the workforce. To me, it’s the best experience for them because it’s what they are actually going to be doing. This is something they’re going to appreciate and take pride in for a long time, probably their whole lives."
He said they like to take on projects like the pavilion and offer help to nonprofit organizations. They rotate their seniors through the different projects. He will take about seven students at a time on site while his co-teacher remains at school.
"They assembled the kit, they worked with the crane and a lift on all different staging and ladders, they are working with nail guns and we put the parts together," Goncales said, adding that the roof panels should be in place by the end of this week.
So grateful for their help
Learning experience designer, STEAM and art teacher Tobey Eugenio said they bring the young people and their colleagues together for a purpose and while the project can take longer, it has meaning to all involved.
"We’re working on behalf of our city together and we’re trying to better and inspire the next generation of youth to collaborate and connect together," she said.
Eugenio said she’s happy to see how proud the students are when they are working on community projects like the pavilion and wants them to feel that what they are doing is for the greater good of their city and for the students.
"This creates a permanent shade structure that we don’t have to worry about deteriorating and falling in, and ultimately from a curriculum standpoint we can host things like community meetings and get our whole school underneath this for family events, graduation events and taking in fresh air," she said.
What the students say
Eighth graders like Maia Morgan are looking forward to seeing the project completed before the summer or during the summer for a specific reason.
"I’m graduating this year, so if it’s done before then, then we have a pavilion for our graduation," she said.
She is also looking forward to seeing the tent gone thanks to the work of the architecture and carpentry students and their instructor.
"We had the opportunity to go bigger so we went bigger," she said.
She said it’s a project for the architecture and carpentry students working on the structure and a project for them before they wind up the school year. There will be no more pulling on the poles of the fragile tent.
"I think it’s a better opportunity to get fresh air because not a lot of schools have outdoor classrooms, and the tent wasn’t really reliable," she said.
Seventh-grader Karlee Medina has also been watching the vocational students working on the pavilion and this week preparing to add electricity. She said it will be good to have the new addition and they won’t have to use the little tent anymore.
"I think it’s good for the outdoors," she said. "When it gets warmer, we can go outside and have more space and a new thing to use."
Stop by in May
A vendor fair May 18 will be an opportunity for the community to see the vendors under the new pavilion and participate in the school’s annual car wash fundraiser and learn more about the school.
"We want the campus to be as much of a community resource as it possibly can be," Herman said.
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira
