(The following story by Eunice Lee appeared on the Desert Dispatch website on December 9.)
BARSTOW, Calif. — Sixty students in Barstow High School’s trade academy program will benefit from a $50,000 grant that will be awarded to their program this Friday.
The grant will help fund the Mojave Xpress Academy’s programs and activities such as field trips, job shadowing events and internship opportunities in the trade and logistics sectors.
The academy, which consists of mainly sophomores and some juniors and seniors at Barstow High School, trains students to apply traditional school subjects like English, math and science towards work force applications in the transportation, logistics and trade industries.
“It ties in education to the real world work force,” said Sandi Thomas, lead vocational teacher for the Mojave Xpress Academy at Barstow High School. “This is a huge awesome thing for our school,” she said.
The grant was funded by Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railway and awarded to International Trade Education Programs, a Glendale-based nonprofit organization geared towards introducing high school students to trade jobs.
For Barstow High School sophomore Dominic Benavidez, a November field trip to the Marine Corps Logistics Base was an eye opening experience.
“There’s so many jobs that are open and one can be yours if you wanted it,” said Benavidez, a participant in the academy. While touring the base, Benavidez said he saw workers rebuilding a tank.
“That piqued my interest,” he said.
Thomas believes that the trade academy’s focus on plugging students into the work force can be beneficial for both students set on earning a salary after high school as well as those considering college.
Upon entering a trade or logistics job, Thomas said, students may think, “I’m making $22 an hour, but I can make $45 if I have that college degree behind me.”
“We want it so that every student in our school believes that there’s something out there for me in the work force,” she said.
The $50,000 check will be presented by BNSF to ITEP CEO Carol Rowen on Friday at 7:30 a.m. at the Barstow Community College Learning Resource Center.