This program brought to you in part by the Erika Lewis Endowment Fund.

-Coming up on Student Spotlight, how this hands-on program at Bonanza High School helps prepare students for careers in construction.

Then... Learning how to talk with employers at the state's largest job fair.

We tag along with students looking for jobs.

Plus... We go behind the scenes with the Video Production class at Desert Oasis High School.

What it takes to create great videos from start to finish.

And...

The business side of music.

Vegas PBS Media Crew member Ezekiel reports on Sierra Vista High School's SV Beats.

Those stories and so much more.

Student Spotlight starts right now.

[swiping sound] Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm your host, Maria Silva.

We have got a show packed full of programs offering CCSD students career paths and great opportunities.

We begin at Bonanza High School where the Building Trades and Construction Technology program just continues to grow.

In fact, the number of students enrolled in construction classes at Bonanza High School has doubled in just two years.

We got the chance to go inside the hands-on program and meet the students who may one day help build your next home, favorite shopping center, or hotel casino.

(Leo Hearn) We started off with just the basics.

You know, using saws, knowing how to use hand tools and power tools, safety.

(Josef Schler) Many haven't used a hammer.

We have to teach them how to swing a hammer appropriately.

And we build all the way up to miter saws, table saws, circular saws.

(Alan Morales) You learn how to pretty much build anything in the construction industry.

We learn also how to do electronics like wiring and all that.

Currently, right now we're building a shed.

-That could also be applied to a bigger scale to make like, a full house almost.

You know, drywall, installation, knowing how to put receptacles in there.

(Marlei Warren) I want to be an architect when I'm older.

So this is a very good opportunity to gain the skills to get into what I want to do.

I'll go through the whole program so I can get into the carpenters union.

And from there, I can work and get my credits and take night school to be, to work up to architect.

(Issael Peredo) You actually get to walk around, build, and do things with their hands, actually get your brain thinking a lot.

-Because not only is this helpful for when you join the workforce, it's also helpful for anything like hobbies or if you need to fix something yourself.

-I teach a lot of math standards.

When we go into roof pitches on our sheds back there, they calculate like special right triangles, like 45-45-90, 30-60-90 triangles.

They calculate-- they know Triangle Sum theorem.

They use Pythagorean theorem.

They use a lot of geometries.

-There's a lot of math, but once you get the hang of it, it's simple.

It's not super complex.

As long as you know how to count and you know how to add, it gets very easy from there.

-There's a margin of error that like, 1/8 of an inch max, but anything over that, the whole structure could be warped and it won't look good or can come down and be structurally just not sound.

-For myself, I also see it as kind of a career as well.

Yeah, with how currently there's new casinos being build, new malls, I learned-- I know that there's one about to be built by Texas casio, so I know for sure they're gonna have a lot of people working on that.

-The way it looks this year with my seniors, it's looking about like 60-80%, somewhere like right around that 70% mark that are going to at least start with construction and, you know, making some money and saving up.

-I am thinking about doing trade school and going into that.

-I mean, I get to teach kids how to find jobs, how to actually work in the construction field and make decent money and not be in debt, yes, I want that really bad.

-If you really are interested in doing something like this, I really suggest taking it and not waiting.

It will really get you somewhere the more you try.

-Bonanza is one of 15 CCSD high schools offering a program just like this one.

What an amazing opportunity to prepare for a possible career.

Well, speaking of careers, as graduation nears, high school seniors are looking forward to what comes next.

For many, it's the workforce.

Among the nearly 4,000 job seekers at last month's Spring Job Fair at the Las Vegas Convention Center, there were about 200 CCSD students.

They arrived by bus with resumes in hand in search of opportunity.

(Kimberly Adams) We are here at the job fair at the Convention Center.

We brought students, our senior class students, to come and get real world experience and find a job.

(Adan Castillo) I hope to find something that I want to do as a career.

I don't know what I want to do after high school, so I'm trying to find something that will pique my interest, keep me engaged, and something that I'll like doing in the future.

-We had lessons on putting together cover letters and resumes.

We also had a whole session of panel interviews where people from the community came to our school and interviewed our seniors so they would have the right look, be able to really tell our employees what we had to offer.

(Julianna Hamilton) I wanted to meet with employers from Allegiant Stadium because they have bigger opportunities for-- I'm a cheerleader.

So they have bigger opportunities to be around that type of environment.

(Xavier Martinez) I'm looking for some opportunities in some trades, maybe a little bit of electrical, carpentry, trying to find some trade jobs or maybe even a job I could do right now.

I'm also looking for future careers after high school, something I could look forward to after that.

(Monica Carol) What's great is there's a number of employers here, and we're trying to get the qualified candidates for the positions that we have opened.

We're looking for those students to be able to give them opportunities.

We have temp positions open so we can give them their experience that they need, where they can start that experience and start putting it on their resumes.

(Farrah Johnson) I had a goal to get at least five official jobs or at least like, interviews, at least.

I plan on going to a trade school.

So hopefully when I get a job here, I can go over and keep that job until I eventually get a better job.

-More than 20 students were offered jobs at the Spring Job Fair.

Well done!

Congratulations.

Now let's head to Escobedo Middle School and Boxer News for our first "News Break."

-Hi.

I'm Vander from Escobedo Middle School's news crew.

-And I'm Tamiah.

We're here with our first "News Break."

-CCSD's Family Support Center just earned a national award.

The National School Board Association recognized the Center for its commitment to innovation by awarding it a silver 2024 Magna Award.

Since opening in the fall of 2022, the Family Support Center has provided students and families with free support, including food and other essential needs.

The Center also provides resources for newcomer and refugee students and families.

-And speaking of national awards, a CCSD principal was also recently honored.

The principal at West Career and Technical Academy was selected as Regional Principal of the Year by Magnet Schools of America.

She has been the principal there since 2013.

Thank you for your work.

-When we come back, we'll tell you more about the Boxer News and our school's namesake.

-But for now, let's send it back to Vegas PBS studios and Maria.

-Nice job!

Thank you, Vandor and Tamiah.

And we can't wait to learn more about Boxer News.

Well, video production programs in the Clark County School District are doing some pretty cool things.

For example, at Desert Oasis High School, students are creating videos about a Women's History Month speaking series at their own school, featuring prominent women in our own community.

We tagged along to learn more about what students learn as they put the pieces together.

(Aaliyah Thompson) Basically, we're here to showcase to our peers about different women and different types of careers and their stories and how they got here and what they had to do to succeed.

(Brianne Bautista) We had to quickly prep in like the 10 minutes that we had before the speaker came, and we had to have things rolling to like set up.

Cameras, make sure cameras are working.

Make sure we had our SD cards.

(Talan Frisco) We have to be coordinated and make sure everything works.

Because if anything fails, it'll ruin the project.

It's really important we get it right.

(Christopher James) It is a real world opportunity.

The Women in Leadership speaker series is now in its 8th year here at DO, and this is an opportunity for these students to practice something that they might actually do if they were videographers, if they were reporters, if they worked on news magazines for video, etc.

-Before spring breaks, like two weeks ago, we went into the theater.

And we kind of watched another speaker come and kind of planned that out, like where do we want our cameras to be, what type of shots that we want to happen, what to make.

-It's important to get a lot of variety in the footage.

It's important to keep, you know, the whole scene really dynamic.

-The students are learning to tell stories, creating stories.

And they're using technology, they're using preplanning processes where they learn how to backwards plan, they learn how to allocate resources, they learn how to deploy those resources, and then take everything that they've recorded or captured and edit it, put together something for a consumer to watch or listen or see.

-If you like your job, you never have to work a day in your life.

It's important for me that I pursue this because it's something I enjoyed doing.

-I fell in love with video production.

-I liked it here.

I like my teacher.

I want to work in this field when I'm older.

So I'm learning a lot, and I'm very confident I can do this.

-I can't wait to see what they produce.

-I'm with you.

I can't wait to see what these talented students create.

You can find the student's work and their newscast DOTV on the school's website, desertoasishighschool.org.

Speaking of talented students, students at West Career and Technical Academy are headed to Washington, D.C., to represent Nevada at the national competition of We the People.

The program puts students through a simulated congressional hearing and test their knowledge of the Constitution.

Joining me now from West CTA is Teacher Ryan Handlon and Students Reagan Catlett and Daniel Malchov.

Thank you all for being here.

-Thank you.

-And congratulations!

So proud of you guys.

I have to ask you first.

For people not familiar with We the People, tell us about this wonderful opportunity.

(Ryan Handlon) Yeah.

So We the People is an incredible program.

And I had a chance to kind of come alongside people a few years ago, a chance to be trained on it, and then I got a chance this year to take it-- last year I got a chance to take it over myself.

What We the People does is exactly like you said, it puts students through simulated congressional hearings.

And for people that don't really know that, it's sort of like what you see on TV when there's a panel of experts that have to present in front of congressmen and congresswomen and they get grilled on their knowledge of a topic.

So in their case, what they do is they are given a subject matter, they're given a question, they have to research it deeply, they have to research Constitution, court cases.

They're then put in front of real-time judges, lawyers, politicians, and then they give a speech with their teammates.

And then they have to defend it in cross-examination.

Usually, like 10 minutes of cross-exam from real-time people who do this for a living, That put them to it, and they make them earn it.

-Hey, they're getting a trip to Washington, D.C. Well deserved!

They definitely earned it.

Reagan, tell me about this experience for you on a personal level.

How did you get involved?

(Reagan Catlett) So last year, as a junior, I had the opportunity to take either AP Government or We the People.

And knowing that I really wanted to learn in depth about the Constitution, I figured We the People would be the best class for me.

And going on, it really has been.

I've been able to work hands-on with the Constitution, court cases, I've been able to go to Reno, and now going to Washington, D.C., has just been an amazing experience and allowed me to really learn about our government system.

-And Daniel, how about you, how long in the program?

(Daniel Malchov) I've only been this year, my senior year.

But the experiences I've learned this year are basically a lifetime of being in this program.

-To be able to say you're going to Washington, D.C., I mean, how does that feel?

What are your family members saying?

-It's honestly so amazing to be there and see all of our hard work being able to be paid off and go see what we have been learning for the past senior year.

-And what about you, Daniel?

-My parents are extremely supportive, and they can't wait to see me in Washington, D.C. And I myself am extremely excited to be at Washington, D.C. -And I have to ask you, you guys hold a very important distinction because you've been there, this will be your second trip, and tell us why that's so important.

-So, yeah, I mean, we are one of only several teams in the last 23 years to be able to go and represent Southern Nevada in Washington, D.C., in the national competition.

I was able to go along with some people a few years ago, and that gave me kind of a little bit of knowledge I needed to then take it this year and try to push it forward.

So yeah, it's just, it's mind blowing.

-And in 23 years, Southern Nevada has only been invited three times, right?

This is the third time, and you guys went twice.

-We went twice, yeah.

-And when you go to Washington, D.C., will you have time, I mean you'll be busy, but will you have time to see all the beautiful monuments and the sights?

-Yes, absolutely.

We have a planned-out schedule every single day.

We're going to be visiting the Washington Monument, the White House on the first day, the African American Museum, the Jewish Historical Museum, the Korean War Museum, and plenty of others across our time there.

-Reagan, will you be able to meet with some Nevada lawmakers while you're there?

-I don't know who is on our judging panel.

I do hope to be able to meet some.

Anyone, any politicians would be super great to meet.

-And Mr. Handlon, it's a big group going.

How many students?

-We have 26 going.

-Okay.

And that takes a lot of money.

What's going on with that?

You need help?

-Yeah.

You know, it does obviously take a community effort to do that.

So, you know, any support that we can get, we're looking for.

It's definitely one of those things.

We want to represent Southern Nevada well, so anything that anybody can do to give us a little push, we would take it.

-Well, congratulations and good luck.

I've been to D.C., and it's beautiful.

And what a wonderful experience.

-Thank you.

-Can't wait to welcome you back after you go.

-Yes.

-All right.

Now let's head back to Escobedo Middle School for our second "News Break."

-Hi.

I'm Julian from Escobedo's Boxer News.

-And I'm Chilia.

We're back with the second "News Break."

-Welcome to our studio.

Every day we reproduce the news for students in the school.

We learn how to speak on camera, run the teleprompter, create fun informational videos, write announcements, and edit the news.

We have a green screen camera, lighting, microphone, and computers all to help us sound and look great.

-Our mission at the Boxer News is to help improve our school by telling about all the great things happening.

We have reported on many events this year, such as amazing concerts given by the band, choir, and orchestra, the Student Council, Yearbook, Robotics, and other fun clubs.

We also get to highlight our incredible sports team.

In fact, both our girls and boys basketball teams were undefeated in our division this year, and the girls team won the championship game.

-The Boxer News has covered important school-wide programs, such as Nevada Reading Week, Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, and Leader in Me.

-We also help to promote positivity at school through reminding students of our Boxer Be's: Be respectful, be responsible, and be kind.

Best of all, we get to say a corny joke at the end to help students start their day with a laugh.

-We are proud to make such an important impact on our school and community, just like Edmundo "Eddie" Escobedo, who our school was named after.

Mr. Escobedo lived the American dream.

When he moved to the United States from Mexico, he enlisted in the US Air Force.

As an entrepreneur, he was the publisher of El Mundo, a Spanish language newspaper here in Las Vegas.

Mr. Escobedo worked hard and wanted our community to be a better place for all.

And I'm proud to go to this school.

-Thank you for visiting our school.

We'll send it back to Maria, but not before we say... (Studets) Have a great day, Las Vegas!

-Love it.

And thank you to Escobedo Middle School and Teacher Mr. McArthur for helping us with this month's "News Break."

So much talent.

Now to Sierra Vista High School to find out more about a program that explores both the creative and business sides of the music industry.

Vegas PBS Media Crew member Ezekiel Day takes us inside SV Beats.

-Hi.

I'm Ezekiel Day from Sierra Vista High School, and I'm part of the Vegas PBS Media Crew.

Today I wanted to highlight the unique program offered to students here at Sierra Vista.

Many students who are interested in pursuing music as a career are often uncertain of how they can begin their journey.

That's where SV Beats come in.

It's a perfect program that will get your foot in the door in the music industry.

What is SV Beats?

(Shane Gibson) SV Beats is kind of like the overall encompassing of everything involved with making music.

So whether it's songwriting, performing, recording, the business side, social media, doing live sound, recorded sound, engineering, kind of the whole deal put together.

-What inspired the creation of SV Beats?

-We started off as a DJ music production club, because thats what my background was mostly in.

And then as we started meeting, we started to kind of build the curriculum for what ended up being the elective through what the wants and needs and desires of the students were.

-This is SV Beats.

For those who don't know, my name is-- -What inspired you to join SV Beats, and what do you enjoy most about the program?

(Quin Dottery) I'm not gonna lie.

When I was choosing electives in 8th grade, this program was like, fourth on my list.

Really, it was just like filling up the programs.

But I really enjoy being immersed in the world of music with my peers, with my classmates.

[performing] (Josh Ortiz) I just used to come in here and look at the guitars and wish I could play those and make music.

But I didn't know it was like a class about making music until last year.

This class really brought me to get to-- it got me to focus on what I wanted.

(Kaya Holland) So SV Beats just let me really focus on what I love and how I wanted to take that and all the different routes of what I do in my high school career.

-It helped me to get more out of myself and what I wanted to do for my goals in life and what I wanted in my future.

-How does SV Beats help students develop their unique voice and sound in this program?

-So this path is a lot different than traditional paths for everybody else because there's no one right way to do something.

If you want to write music, you're going to write in your own voice, tell your own stories.

If you wanted to DJ, you're gonna find specific genres that you gravitate towards.

If you want to produce, there's different softwares and different ways.

So it's a way to be taught from multiple different people instead of just one teacher in a way you have to teach yourself by being curious and pushing yourself to learn.

(Tayven Stipp) If you said I'd be playing at First Friday downtown, I would tell you I never would.

So this has not only shaped my experience as a program, but as a person as I've gotten older.

And it's only ever benefited me, and it's brought me a lot of joy.

I look forward to coming here.

-I'm fortunate to have this program all four years, and I really do truly think that it was the luckiest thing that has happened to me, because this is such an amazing and such a fulfilling program.

I really enjoy it.

-Thanks to SV Beats, it has made it possible for students to unlock a whole new world of music and creativity and to follow their passion for music.

I'm Ezekiel Day with the Vegas PBS Media Crew signing off.

-Thank you, Ezekiel.

Great report.

Cool program.

Well, the Clark County School Board of Trustees now has four additional members.

They are non-voting members appointed by local municipalities.

Students at Palo Verde High School recently sat down with Trustee Adam Johnson, who represents the City of Las Vegas, to learn more about his role and background.

(Diego Cressel) Hello, Trustee Johnson.

Thank you for visiting our school, Palo Verde High School.

We are thrilled to be interviewing you.

Are you ready?

(Adam Johnson) I am.

Thank you.

I'm excited to be able to do this, most importantly with young people, because I think that's actually the most fun.

That's part of the reason I took this job, to be able to support and work with young people.

-Thank you.

-So first things first.

Not many people know what a CCSD trustee does or is exactly.

Could you explain a little bit about the responsibilities you'll have to overtake, undertake as a newly appointed trustee?

-Yeah.

You know, the job is-- it's a pretty complex job, but it's also a simple job at the same time.

So the responsibility of the trustees are to oversee the entire CCSD School District, but really oversee it through one person.

We have one employee who is responsible for actually taking care of the entire district.

So that employee is the superintendent, who the position is vacant now.

So if either of you are interested, you're welcome to apply.

But in all seriousness, our responsibility is to manage our single employee.

And so that employee then works with the entire school district to ensure that academic results are strong, to make sure that we have enough money to be solvent for years in the future, to make sure that students are safe, to make sure the operations of the school run well.

And so that superintendent's job is then to report to us about how those things are going.

-How has your background helped you choose this career path, and why did you want to become a trustee?

-You know, I have-- I think about where I come from.

So I'm born and raised in Washington, D.C., yep, the nation's capital, my favorite city, and then this is my second favorite city.

So born and raised in DC, and my family, we lived in a working-class neighborhood.

I loved my community.

On my street, I was one of probably 30 or 40 kids.

But my house, I had two brothers.

And our expectation was that higher education was going to happen.

And so we got a lot of opportunity to pursue higher education.

And then as I started thinking about where my friends were on my street, in my neighborhood and my block, I thought, it seems quite unfair that I wasn't any more talented, I wasn't any smarter, I didn't, I didn't want anything different for my life than my friends.

I just got opportunity through education.

And I thought, what if every single student, every single person had the opportunity to pursue their dreams in whatever that might be because they had an excellent education.

And so for me, that was the driving force to get into education.

So I moved from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas to get into the education space, and I started at a nonprofit.

And then I worked six years as a school leader, where I got to support young people just like you every day.

I got to see them every morning, shake their hands as they came in, and it really fueled my fire to know that people can make a difference in young people's lives.

You all have the drive.

You have the ambition.

You all have the intelligence.

We need to set up the structures to make sure you can thrive.

And so after I took a break from that, I wanted to figure out how to make more impact in my community?

How do I continue to support more young people reaching their goals?

So that was really the drive behind being a trustee.

Lots of people will say, Well, you don't even get to vote, and this is a really hard job.

And so why would you even want to do that?

But if I didn't decide to do it, who would?

Right?

(Fiovay Pena) Touching on your not being able to vote, how do you think you can be an effective member without being able to vote?

-You know, I talk to young people often, and I tell them that you have to advocate for yourself.

You have to know what you want to be able to get what you want.

And so while I can't vote, that doesn't mean I'm voiceless.

In every meeting, I can come prepared to discuss the topics, I can have listened to my community, and then I can use my own voice and plus my experience and talk about what I think we should do to move forward.

Even if I were to have a vote, I'd be 1 of 11 votes.

So I'm 1/11 of a decision.

But my voice gets lots of people to think differently.

It gets community members involved.

I think that's equally powerful.

-Well, that's beautiful.

Thank you so much.

We're very honored to be interviewing you today.

It was actually a very wonderful experience.

-Thank you so much Fiovay and Diego, and Trustee Johnson as well.

That was a great interview.

The students had many more great questions, and you can find the entire conversation on the Student Spotlight section of the Vegas PBS website, vegaspbs.org.

Well, before we leave you, just in time for Earth Day, more than 500--yes, you heard right--500 student farmers are getting ready to show off the fresh fruits and veggies they grew in their own school gardens.

Produce from 55 school gardens throughout Southern Nevada will be sold at the Giant Student Farmers Market organized by Green Our Planet.

And the country's largest student farmers market will be held in Downtown Summerlin on Friday, April 19, from 9:30 a.m. to noon, and you are all invited.

All the proceeds go directly to the school garden programs.

And of course we have to say good luck to all of these amazing student farmers, and thank you at home for joining us for this edition of Student Spotlight.

A reminder, you can catch this episode, past episodes, and online extras on the Student Spotlight page of the Vegas PBS website or YouTube.

We will see you next month.

Bye, bye!