Student Spotlight
Mason Rife is a first-year in a video and media production, but he has a large amount of experience working with cameras and editing videos.
Rife created a YouTube channel called “Not Ever Average” (NEA) that reached 47,000 subscribers. The channel mainly focuses on entertaining viewers through sports-related content.
Rife works with a group of close friends to create content for the YouTube channel, but his main role in the production is filming, editing, and thinking of new ideas for NEA. This channel gave Rife the opportunity to work with the creator of blitzball and travel to Florida every year to play basketball against MLB players through a sponsored game. The channel has been active for five years and is still growing. Rife said his favorite part about doing YouTube is getting to be his own boss.
Last month, Rife received an award for student of the quarter at the career center and received a gift card for the Cinemark at Valparaiso. Rife’s favorite part about video and media production is the class structure and the ability to be creative in his own way.
What’s Happened
As the warm weather disappears and we head into winter, the Porter County Career Center is working to adjust to the increase of COVID-19 numbers making sure students have an enjoyable and safe experience.
On Halloween, students got to dress up in their favorite costumes. Many students and teachers participated in dressing up, and many classes had entertaining Halloween activities planned within their individual classrooms.
The automotive class is constantly fixing cars and repairing different vehicles, but recently, students put together a demolition derby stock car that their teacher, Steven Hundt raced at South Bend Motor Speedway on October 24. Hundt successfully raced 13 out of 15 laps, and the auto class also had two second-year classmates that raced their vehicles at the derby.
Over at the Beauty Depot, the salon is now open to the public for all beauty services. Cosmetology students are now allowed to practice their skills on people outside of their vocational class. Mask requirements and coronavirus restrictions will still be enforced for all services. Monday through Thursday, the Beauty Depot opens at 2 p.m. and closes at 5 p.m.. On Fridays, the Beauty Depot opens at 12 p.m. and closes at 3:50 p.m., so make sure to stop by at one of those times and help the students reach their hours for their cosmetology license.
The Porter County Career Center had its very first virtual learning day on November 3 where all students participated in an E-learning assignment for the day. No Google Meets were held, but students had to perform tasks at home as if they were at vocational classes.
The video and media production class had their second episode of PCTV News on November 6 where students collaborated on different news stories to perform a newscast for the whole building to watch.
When the Valparaiso Vikings advanced to Regionals, video and media production students broadcasted the football game on the PCTV YouTube channel for viewers all over to watch.
The health science occupations classes had to participate in E-Learning for two weeks because of coronavirus. Both classes stayed busy working toward achieving their Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) License through different projects that could be completed at home. In one health science class, students practiced shaving faces on balloons to prepare them for the tasks they will have when they begin clinicals.
In the computer and animation design class, students began working on a project designing sheet metal parts on their computers. This project was completed by both second and first-year students in the classroom.
Coming up
The video and media production class will host their third episode of PCTV news on December 6, so make sure to tune in.
In the near future, one of the health science occupations classes will begin their clinical rotations where students will learn about how to take care of actual patients and prepare for their CNA License.
As we head towards the end of the second grading period, many classes will begin preparing for their final exams and completing their projects that are due at the end of the semester.
The career center will have an open house on Tuesday, December 1, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., which is open to anyone looking into signing up for one of the programs at the career center. The open house will provide information about any of the classes students are interested in and teach underclassmen about what projects and activities each class performs throughout the school year.
Teacher Spotlight
Bill Guinee is the teacher spotlight for November. Guinee teaches the computer animation and design class at the Porter County Career Center. Guinee has been teaching for seventeen years and thinks the most important thing for students to learn in CAD is to pay attention to details and be accurate. His advice for underclassmen wanting to sign up for CAD is to take a course at their home high school before signing up for CAD and to get good grades because Guinee’s class usually has a long waiting list. Guinee’s favorite part of teaching CAD is being able to teach something he enjoys and talking to the students and staff.