Since the establishment of its drone unit in its career & technical education program, Rochelle Township High School has seen over 190 students receive their recreational drone pilot certification, RTHS CTE Teacher Deanna Jacobs said Oct. 16.

The RTHS CTE program includes three courses: Introduction to advanced manufacturing, introduction to systems, and home & workplace maintenance. Students learn various trade skills and are exposed to potential careers.

The drone unit is part of the home & workplace maintenance course. RTHS has nine drones for a class of 24 students. Drones, which cost about $1,000 each, have been purchased through grants from the RTHS Education Foundation and Compeer Financial.

“We have kids that have never touched one to kids who have played video games involving them,” Jacobs said. “We place an emphasis on getting the right certification for it. They all get certified to be able to fly drones recreationally. We fly them around the school and kids get experience doing it. We talk about the different jobs and careers they can get into involving drones, including the insurance industry, photography and construction.”

Students have used the drones for taking pictures of the RTHS campus, and have even taken on special projects for the shared district office, such as photographing construction at Tilton Elementary School and land moving that was done at the RTHS retention pond. Jacobs said she hopes to see more utilization of drones for things like sporting events.

RTHS CTE classes have seen support from local industries and organizations that come in and give demonstrations to students. The Ogle County Sheriff’s Office and Rochelle Police Department have brought their drones out to show the kids how they use them.

“They use the same brand of drones that we do,” Jacobs said. “It’s cool for the kids to see that. They see them flying drones in a career setting and that it’s not all having fun and taking pictures. Syngenta Seeds will be bringing out one of its crop spraying drones to show another career application.”

RTHS student Brandin Kirk said CTE classes at the school have allowed him to be exposed to a lot of different possible careers. He’s taken the lead on taking drone pictures of the Tilton School project. He believes CTE courses are good for students who are looking at other paths besides college.

RTHS student Mason Bolhous said he’s learned a lot in the home & workplace maintenance course and called flying drones “a huge privilege.”

“I think there are a lot of skills for life to be learned in this class,” Bolhous said. “It’s fun. It’s an experience. I never thought I’d get to fly drones or do some of the other things we do here while I was in high school.”

RTHS student Parker Slattengren attended a camp over the summer for electrical work in Rockford. In CTE programming at RTHS, he found a lot of the same learning materials and hands-on learning that he saw at that camp.

Cooper Holmgren is a student in RTHS’s introduction to advanced manufacturing class and has worked on machine automation, robotics, AC/DC electricity, fluid power and electrical relay. Students also take tests to find out what kind of career would be best for them.

“Going through that definitely piqued my interest,” Holmgren said. “That lets me see what I’m better at and what I’m not so good at and what I find interesting that I may not have even thought about before. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of learning.”

RTHS students have access to specialized career & technical education courses through Kishwaukee Education Consortium at Kishwaukee College. Students in those programs travel off the RTHS campus for part of their day. Jacobs said RTHS’s in-house CTE classes provide some of that learning opportunity while fitting into students’ schedules in a convenient way.

Each February, RTHS CTE students take a field trip to the union hall in Rockford to expose students to unions and careers. The school is also planning a trades day in December where unions and industry leaders will come in and interact with students about career paths available to them.

“We’ve had past students that have gotten into those trades,” Jacobs said. “We tell them it will be hard work, but worth it. And that’s what they’ve found. College wasn’t the right fit for them and now they’re finding success in the real world outside RTHS.”

Jacobs said she enjoys seeing students find something in CTE classes that could become a career for them one day. Students that excel more with hands-on learning than they do in structured classes get a confidence boost from CTE classes, she said.

“When I was in high school, I didn’t love the more structured classes,” Jacobs said. “I liked the hands-on classes where I could go outside and do something. I think that’s why a lot of students like my classes and the other CTE classes, because they actually get to do something and they’re not in one place. It’s nice to get them a break from their Chromebooks and be able to build something or do something. Being able to do something versus just learning about it is another realm of education.”