North Country Career Center

A banner of words that describes the Career Center. The frist word is Educate in the color red. The second word is Inspire in orange. The next word is Prepare in the color yellow. The next word is PRACTICE in the color green. The next word is DEVELOP in the color blue and the last word is EXCEL in the color purple.

Events

March 20, 2024

 4th Grade STEM Fair

April 8 - April 10, 2024

SkillsUSA State Competitions

April 12, 2024

Employers Appreciation Breakfast

April 15 - 19, 2024

Spring Break

No School

NCCC in the News

NCCC Instructor Receives Honor

NCCC is very proud to announce that Tia Judd, Business Leadership & Marketing Instructor, was honored at the FBLA state conference as 'New FBLA Chapter Advisor of the Year'. Her students, Ashton Shedd, FBLA State Reporter, and Hannah Erickson, FBLA State Historian, both gave speeches that recognized the significant contribution Ms. Judd has made to their education and the NCCC local FBLA chapter. Tia has increased FBLA participation exponentially and mentored her students to excel in business skills from public speaking and presenting to digital citizenship and marketing. She is a highly accomplished and motivated member of the NCCC teaching team and models professionalism at the highest level every day in her work. 

NCCC is back in action and recently Shaye Collins, former FFA state officer,  opened his SweetWater Hatchery for Animal  Systems Science & Conservation students to study the life cycle of the trout as part of the fisheries biology unit. Ted Snell, from Orleans Country Natural Resources Conservation District, graciously visited the classroom to teach students about salmon and stream ecology.  Big thanks to all the community members that support this program, fisheries biology, and FFA. 

Congrats to the newest Vermont State Motor Vehicle Inspectors who were put through their paces by DMV personnel on written and practical testing today.  Thank you to the DMV team of Detective Curtis Wilkin and Inspectors Cindy Costello, Tyler Duczeminski and Keith Randall. Transportation Science Technology students Abby Costa, Jason Eastman, Tristan Farnham, Owen Hoyt, Ethan Kotelnicki, Spencer Marquette, Nevaeh Morse, Aspen Perrault-Guyette, Alex Perron, Cally Sanville, Jonathan Sylvester, and Justin Young all passed with flying colors.  Big thanks to Instructor Karen Chitambar and Lab Supervisor Gerard Chapdelaine who work hard every day to help students gain skills, confidence and these important Industry Recognized Credentials. 

Welding students are acquiring industry certifications that will serve them well in their post-secondary plans.  Congrats to the following students for qualifying for the  D 1.1 Unlimited Certification - Alexis Derouchie, Treyvor Fletcher, Jesse Hamblett, Ezra Lackie, Brodrick Langmaid, Mathieu Smith & Mckenna Ward; and the D 1.1 Limited Structural Steel Certification - Jayden Choquette, Danivyn Daggett, Hayden Gosselin, Caleb Grenier, Ryan Guillette, Maddox Lakin, Logan Lantagne, Connor Marckres & Sam Randall.  Thanks as always to Ben Wells, Welding & Metal Fabrication Instructor, for his excellent preparation and instructional efforts with all students.  

'Job well done!' - five confident students stepped up to do a job skills demonstration for a panel of community judges to celebrate SkillsUSA week.  The students prepared a comprehensive yet concise presentation of a specific skill and 'taught' the skill to the judges. Skills ranged from the technical aspects of using power tools, to CPR & AED with the highest honors going to AJ Esposito who demonstrated how to create an activity for elder care residents using the skills and knowledge from his Lifespan Developmental Psychology class.  Many thanks to the community members Graham Rae, Jennifer Palmieri & Dallas Willey (Department of Labor) and Julie Laforce (Built by Newport). 

It is with great pleasure that NCCC presents Cooper Hodgeman who was recognized at the Vermont State House on January 22 for his academic, leadership, and diverse range of extracurricular achievements. The list is long and impressive but equally important are his contributions as a mentor to elementary students, his colleagueship and respect for his classmates and teachers, and the high standard he consistently strives to reach which includes pursuing Electrical Engineering after graduation. Well deserved! 

Congratulations to Alex Perron and Michael Thomas for qualifying to participate in the 2024 Heritage Automotive Challenge in Burlington on March 13. Alex and Michael will be competing against other Automotive Program students in diagnosis and repair. Students will spend the day with automotive technicians learning, collaborating, enjoying friendly competition, picking up current technologies and hopefully earning scholarship funds. Alex and Michael are ramping up their skills under the expertise of NCCC Instructors Karen Chitambar and Gerard Chapdelaine. Good luck! 

Community partnerships help advance student learning and animal health.

Last week Stagecoach Stables was bustling with activity. Bundled in winter coats, Animal Systems Science & Conservation students had the rare opportunity to watch veterinarians from Cold Hollow Veterinary Services perform surgery on a standing sedated horse.

Stagecoach Stables is owned and operated by Jessica Judd, a former Lake Region FFA student. The beautiful horse, Dolly, is owned by Tatum Geoffrey-Kimball, a former FFA student of Ms. Dehoff. Together they worked with Cold Hollow to coordinate this work-based learning opportunity for the students. Ms. Dehoff and her crew are grateful for the dedicated agricultural community members that allow experiential learning on their farms. 

NCCC is honored to announce that Cooper Hodgeman will receive an Honorable

Mention in Vermont’s 2024 Presidential Scholars program in Career and Technical

Education. Students are chosen based upon their outstanding leadership and service to their communities along with technical and academic achievement, perseverance, creativity and innovation. Cooper has excelled in the Mechatronics/STEM program under the expertise of Hazen Converse, Program Instructor, and plans to pursue Electrical Engineering. Cooper is an ENCORE after-school program mentor to elementary students, and a member of SkillsUSA, the National Honor Society, and the STEM academy. He is a great asset to our community - congratulations! 

A group of students posing in a semi circle for a photo.

Daisy Hailey and Blaike Poutre, Alumni of the first Cosmetology class to receive Vermont Licenses in July 2023 visited the current senior class to give a 'Salon Talk'.  Both former students are employed at Studio 12 in Derby and presented a bird's eye view of their first few months in the industry. They discussed topics ranging from client communications, business applications, scheduling, professionalism, and perhaps most important of all, the major transition from learning and practicing in the class to transferring this array of skills to professional practice. 

Students have their hand full of tree balsam furs to make wreaths during a winter day.

The FFA legacy lives on!  In 2008 FFA advisors Fern Fontaine and Dan Ross planted conifer trees at the Land Lab for future FFA students to use for value-added forest product production.  Since 2018, Ms. Dehoff has taken her FFA students to the Land Lab to sustainably harvest conifer tips and learn how to make wreaths.  We are grateful for the foresight of both Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Ross and their dedication to NCCC FFA. 

Seven different photos in a collage of students smiling in a high school gymnasium.

Thirty NCCC program students held an informational assembly at Lake Region Union HIgh School today for sophomores to give a current student's POV into the various NCCC programs.  The message was clear - NCCC is a place for any student who is looking to explore a career pathway and along the way acquire specific skills sets, industry credentials, college credits, work based learning experiences, join student organizations, find a passion for experiential learning and maybe a future career.  LRUHS Sophomores will be following up with a visit to the main NCCC campus and the Land Lab next week. 

A picture of a pie in one picture. A picture of a stduent cutting dough from a long strip of dough. A picture of two students smiling while they are preparing and filling apple pies. The last picture in the collage is a rack of eight uncooked pies on cookie sheets

Happy Thanksgiving From NCCC!

Happy Thanksgiving!  The Culinary Arts Program is wrapping up its annual bake sale which includes a generous donation to a local community Thanksgiving dinner.  A busy team of students have produced eighty pies and seventy dozen rolls which will add to the festivities at many celebrations.  Thank you with gratitude to Chef Frances Woodard and her crew; Parker Allen, Kameron Coe, Hayden Cote, Lily Davio, Isaac Effrig, Buckley Kotelnicki, Dayana Leget, Dylan Perkins, Willow Rondeau, Trey Tourangeau and Winter Toulon. 

A group of students staning outside of North Country Carreer Center's large NCCC letters. Students are posing with a certified paper that they received from learning sign language.

Communication is everything! Guest Anne Marie Tremblay, American Sign Language Instructor, recently certified second year Human Services students in Basic ASL after a series of interactive lessons. Students now have a basic vocabulary of sign language which will increase their ability to be effective communicators with diverse populations. This training is just one of the many certifications that Instructor Heidi Santaw offers in the Human Services Program helping prepare students for a variety of post-secondary career pathways. 

A collage of pictures. The first picture is a man in full workmans gear climbing up a telephone poll. The next photo is a group of studio listening to a speaker with tv screens behind the speaker. The third photo is two students earing workman's gloves high fiving each other. The last picture is a man speaking with six TV screens in the background.

A huge thank you to Vermont Electric Co-Op, Newport for welcoming some of our NCCC program and NCUHS STEM students for a true behind the scenes, hands-on informational session and tour. Students were amazed at how many career opportunities are available and learned a lot about the educational requirements, benefits, and demands of these diverse careers. A great educational experience! 

A group of students, teacher and Governor Scott wearing hard hats outside a house.
A group of students wearing hard hats and carpenter's belts standing outside a house they are redoing.
A group of LNA students with their teacher posing for a group photo.

NCCC Alumni Teaching New NCCC Students

NCCC Alumni are special! Health Sciences students experienced their first LNA clinical day at Bel-Aire Health Center under the watchful eye of alum Miranda Ryan (Class of 2010) who is now a RN at North Country Hospital and a co-teacher for NCCC in the Licensed Nursing Assistant strand. Her expertise and professional experience are highly valued skill sets and are now enriching the current LNA class. Thank you to Health Sciences Instructors Celine Champine and Kathy Gray who work every year preparing students for successful careers in this vital career pathway with countless hours of experiential learning, community clinical rotations, college classes, industry trainings and credentials and a lot of TLC! 

A picture collage of five photos. The first photo is a teacher and there students wearing maroon overalls holding clipboards. The second photo is the FFA logo. The last three photos are pictures of three students reading their notes on their clipboard outside in a field.

Animal Systems Science Competes

Soil is the soul of the earth! Ms. Dehoff took three of her FFA students to compete at the Vermont FFA Land Judging and Soils Career Development Event in Randolph, VT. This state-wide competition introduces students to the basic concepts of soil science - such as soil texture, slope estimates, runoff potential, and permeability - as well as enables students to practice prescribing recommended land management practices based on the data gathered at each soil pit.

Ms. Dehoff strives to make a positive difference in the lives of her FFA students by developing their potential for leadership, personal growth, and career success. This mission is accomplished through providing opportunities for her students to practice and compete in competitions and leadership events that will prepare them for professional careers in science. 

A student in mechanic clothing posing with a vintage car.

Transportation Science Technology Live Work Has Begun!

Owen Hoyt, a Junior at Lake Region High School, worked on this Vintage 1958 Metropolitan, releasing the brake cylinders. Students work under the expert guidance of Instructor Karen Chitambar and Lab Supervisor Gerry Chapdelaine. Restorations and vintage cars are an added bonus!

A group of students and farm owner standing outside a barn. Some students are holding chicken and their is a dog with them.

Animal System Sciences Head To The Farm

Community connections are alive and well at NCCC! Thanks to the combined generosity, patience and wisdom of Spring Brook Farm's Kitty and Spud Edwards and Sebastian LaTraverse, Animal System Science students study and work at this biological field station which is an integral part of the program as students discover the science behind agricultural systems This seamless collaboration is entering its sixth year and was carefully crafted by Emily Dehoff, Program Instructor! 

Students are working in the welding room.

The NCCC Welding Program is expanding due to popular demand! Current students have fabricated 14 new booths to replace the 10 original booths. Fabrication from start to finish includes a huge dose of occupational safety practices, measurements and math, grinding and GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding). This project has involved major collaboration amongst Gene's Electric, students and Ben Wells, Program Instructor. A job well done that will offer more students the chance to acquire important skill sets for their future career pathways. 

A photo of three pictures. The first picture is a group of three adults and two students posing for a photo. The second photo is the automatics teach posing with a student at the job fair. The last photo is of a student holding University of Maine's logo sticker while she stands next to UM admissions rep who is holding a UM logo sticker.

The 2023 College & Career Fair (thanks to Andrea Carbine and a horde of helpers) offered students a chance to mingle with over 60 colleges, tech schools, local employers and community resources. Tyra Scelza (future Wildlife Biologist & Forester) met with University of Maine's admission rep Karyn Soltis-Habeck (lower right); Gavin Rondeau and Preston Moulton, Building Trades Students, talked with Amy Hilliker, Spates Construction and Julie Laforce, Built by Newport (upper right); and Michael Thomas, Auto Student and Karen Chitambar, Auto Instructor, heard about some great opportunities at Tivoly from Tina Royer. There was something for everyone!