Our Town Teens Archives - Page 2 of 6

Pellissippi State to host free distance-learning conference

Julia WoodMay 29, 2019Our Town Teens

Educators interested in making their online classes more engaging are invited to a free one-day distance-learning conference at Pellissippi State Community College on Wednesday, June 26.
Tanya Joosten, director of Digital …

Get help with financial aid

Julia WoodMay 21, 2019Our Town Teens

Students who are feeling overwhelmed by paperwork for grants, loans and scholarships have four upcoming opportunities to get hands-on help from financial-aid experts at Pellissippi State Community College.
Pellissippi State will …

TVA showcases robotics

Shannon CoxMay 15, 2019Our Town Kids, Our Town Teens

An estimated 80 students from area elementary, middle and high schools – along with students from the University of Tennessee – demonstrated their skills with robotics Tuesday at TVA’s West …

Knox Catholic honors scholarship winners

Sandra ClarkMay 15, 2019Our Town Teens

Knoxville Catholic High School honored 14 students who’ve earned a full-ride academic scholarship to college this fall.
Family members, friends, teachers and coaches joined the students at an Academic Signing-Day Ceremony …

HVA students getting special delivery

Betsy PickleMay 13, 2019Our Town Teens, West Knox

Some graduating seniors at Hardin Valley Academy will receive congratulatory letters today from VIPs – themselves.
Teachers Sarah Bratton Brengle and Ginger Gill Griffin asked their fifth-grade students at Hardin Valley …

Knox graduations next week

Josh FloryMay 10, 2019Our Town Teens

Graduation ceremonies for Knox County’s 16 high schools will take place next week. The dates and times of each ceremony are listed below. All graduations will take place at Thompson-Boling …

Bearden boys honored for state championship

Sandra ClarkMay 10, 2019Our Town Teens, West Knox

In the final days of the legislative session, Knoxville Sens. Becky Massey and Richard Briggs honored the Bearden Bulldogs boys’ basketball team for their win at the boys’ basketball AAA …

Prodigy wows blues veteran-partner Faust

Tom KingMay 9, 2019Farragut, Our Town Teens

When a man who plays the blues like Blue Barry Faust plays them calls a young man of 16 “a prodigy,” you need to pay attention. Ben Kreider is the …

Page 2 of 6
←
1
2
3
...
6
→

Something is happening.

The nurses check the patient’s pupils. “They’re asymmetrical,” one reports. Stethoscopes out, they listen to his chest, where they hear an asthmatic wheeze. A few minutes later, they’re administering CPR, taking turns counting and doing chest compressions.

It’s not a real patient, and it’s not an emergency. It’s just a typical day at nursing camp at Pellissippi State Community College.

YouthForce students line up to practice the Heimlich maneuver.

YouthForce, the workforce-development program of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley, will bring 60 high school students to Pellissippi State’s Strawberry Plains Campus this summer to experience weeklong Technical Training Camps.

Nursing and welding camps were held June 4-7 while cybersecurity and manufacturing camps will take place Tuesday-Friday, June 18-21.

“We like to make everything hands-on applications of the theory,” explained Andy Polnicki, director of the MegaLab on the Strawberry Plains Campus. “I went to a traditional (four-year) school, and when I graduated and got out into the real world, I realized I only knew a lot of theory. Here at Pellissippi State we spend a lot of time actually applying that theory.”

The goal of YouthForce, which is open to any high school student in Knox and Blount counties, is to expose high school students to skilled trades and to gain first-job skills, explained YouthForce Director Rebecca McDonough. This is the third year YouthForce has held the camps at Pellissippi State.

A YouthForce student works on a project during welding camp.

Decked out in matching scrubs with fully equipped nurses’ kits, the 16 students in nursing camp rattled off all the things they learned during the week, from the medical (how to stop a bleed, how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, how to administer CPR to a baby) to the practical (how to change hospital beds, how to wash their hands, how to put a pillowcase on a pillow without getting it contaminated).

“We got to experience real nurses, and they shared their stories with us,” explained Callie Anderson, a rising senior at Fulton High School. “Them giving us that extra background of what it’s like to be in the nursing field and then all the hands-on skills labs was just beyond my expectations. I’m so appreciative of this program.”

As nursing instructor Jennifer Priano started to walk a group of students through how to deliver a baby on the SimMom, an advanced full-body birthing simulator, Auna Campbell could not contain her excitement.

“I watch labor videos all the time! People think I’m weird, but it’s really interesting,” said Campbell, a rising junior at West High School. “I want to be a nurse, and I know what I need to do, but I need guidance to know what classes to take and to keep me on the right path because labor and delivery takes a whole lot of schooling. This camp this week helps a lot.”

Downstairs, the 14 students in welding camp showed off what they’d learned how to make this week.

Tashaun Patrick, a rising junior at South Doyle High School, shows his football number he made with a plasma cutter during welding camp.

“This was my first experience with welding, but it’s really cool,” said Tashaun Patrick, a rising junior at South-Doyle High School. “I love the plasma cutter. It’s just the most amazing thing. I made my football number and put it on a post. Today I took these random parts and made an eagle. We’re making a lot of cool stuff that you wouldn’t make in a typical high school class.”

Patrick noted he enjoyed welding camp so much that he plans to make welding his back-up plan if a sports career doesn’t work out.

“This has been all you want in a summer camp,” Patrick added. “We’ve been learning and having a lot of fun doing it.”

For more information about YouthForce, visit www.bgctnv.org/youthforce. For more information on Pellissippi State, visit www.pstcc.edu or call 865-694-6400.

Julia Wood is director of marketing and communications for Pellissippi State Community College.