Mo Charnot
Early College Opportunities High School student Kai Hamilton learns the basics of hand sawing in his construction class.
In the spacious construction workshop at Early College Opportunities High School, the buzz of power tools signals that class is in session. Students in the construction class practice using hand and power tools, work on personal projects (such as a birdhouse and a cutting board) and collaborate on larger projects. For example, during one class period this month, students built a chicken coop with instruction from their teacher, Eugene Doyle.
For Doyle, leading this career and technical education (CTE) class at ECO is a way to teach students “professionalism and responsibility.” This class—which prepares its students for working entry-level positions in the construction industry—is one of eight career pathways offered at ECO to encourage students to seek alternative paths out of high school.
“That’s a big part of ECO—trying to train [students] to either go into college or go into the workforce,” Doyle tells SFR. “I was a contractor for 20 years, so I enjoy teaching the kids different things about being a contractor, the pros and cons of each job that they could get into and explain to them the different possible careers that they could have in every field.”
ECO’s CTE pathways focus on hands-on learning in fields including art and design; auto collision; auto and motorcycle tech; computer science; construction; greenhouse; welding; and work internships through the Academic Career Education class for juniors and seniors.
Some pathways include dual enrollment classes in partnership with the Santa Fe Community College, San Juan College or the Institute of American Indian Arts, and allow for students to earn both high school and college course credits simultaneously. Others allow students to get certified in fields such as welding by the time they graduate high school.
Doyle, who also teaches the school’s greenhouse class, tells SFR that both of his dual enrollment classes are popular with students.
“I used to teach math, and it was hard to get the kids engaged,” Doyle says. “I find the kids are very interested in the greenhouse, very interested in construction. And if they’re not, they could go take welding, auto body or something else. We want to keep the kids interested and kind of focused on what they want to do. Every day over here, for me, is fun.”
Junior ECO student John Sniderman tells SFR he joined Doyle’s construction class to try out more hands-on work, and that he’s interested in construction as a possible career path. For him, the appeal of the class was “not having to sit in the classroom all day, and being able to just focus on useful skills.”
Kai Hamilton tells SFR he elected to join the construction class because it’s a “familiar environment” for him as a woodworking hobbyist. At home, he says he often busies himself through building candelabras, crosses, small statues and puzzles.
“I just really like the amount of resources and the things that we can do over here; it’s actually pretty interesting,” Hamilton says. “You can make a lot of things out of the top of your mind that you can’t really do in a classroom, because there’s limited resources.”
Hamilton takes the construction class as an elective in addition to an auto and motorcycle tech class, and he says auto repair is the field he hopes to work in after graduating. Currently, he is learning how to rebuild engines.
“I’ve worked on cars since I was a kid, and I have a lot of project cars,” Hamilton explains. “I just felt like I grew up with it.”
In addition to driving student engagement and presenting career opportunities for the students, CTE programs have also shown positive graduation rates for their enrolled students. According to the Public Education Department’s class of 2023 data, 95.77% of students who completed two CTE courses graduated, compared to the state’s overall graduation rate of 76.7% that year.
In auto collision teacher Chris Coriz’s opinion, the higher level of engagement and graduation rates among these students could be attributed to the “real-life training” in the classroom leading to students finding a job that pays relatively well directly out of high school.
“The kids really see that value,” Coriz tells SFR. “They say, ‘I’m working hard at learning this skill and mastering this trade, I’m going to graduate with multiple certifications’, and they understand we work with a lot of industry partners here in Santa Fe.”
Coriz’s auto collision class teaches students to repair and repaint vehicles, and it operates like a real auto body shop: students practice their work on damaged cars brought in by Santa Fe residents. They wash the car, run an estimate on the cost of repairing the damage, get the parts they need and make the repairs.
Senior student Declan Killoy says the most surprising part of the class was how quickly he was put to work welding damaged cars.
“They’re not just gonna give you homework, they’re not gonna give you, like, a written test. They’re gonna give you a real life, hands-on test,” Killoy tells SFR. “One thing that I was shocked about was that as soon as I passed the safety test, I started with auto body. I was super blown away by how quickly you get put right into it.”
While Killoy says that auto repair isn’t his first choice in terms of a career (he would personally prefer to go to college and study history), he says he sees the auto collision class as “a great opportunity.”
“I’ve always kind of been interested in working on cars. My dad, he doesn’t know too much, but he always taught me how to do oil changes, how to change a tire and simple stuff like that, and I always found it very useful,” Killoy says. “I get to meet a lot of cool people, a lot of professionals in the industry. A lot of opportunities with dealerships or body shops open up because they actually come looking for us, because we’re the few kids coming out of high school who know about that type of stuff. It gives me something to do. I can get up, move around and work instead of just being trapped at a desk all day.”
When students have completed their year-long beginner class in auto collision, they can enter an advanced class divided into two sections: body work or refinishing. The auto body students focus on structural damage and metal repairs, and refinishing students learn paint mixing and aesthetic repairs for car exteriors. Coriz says the advanced class is divided because automotive shops typically prefer to hire workers who specialize in one of these areas.
“In the beginner [class], they get a taste of everything, and then they’ll eventually gravitate to one side or another,” Coriz says. “They really excel. My students that have three, four years…they’re ready to go to work or continue their education in collision. I have a lot of body shops and dealerships asking for our students here. We’re sending them off, and out of high school, they’re making really good money and having a good career.”
