Technology department hosts open house

Abigail Babineau
Open house attendees toured the Northeast Technical Building on Saturday.

The Technology department hosted an open house on Saturday for technical careers to provide current and future students with more information about what programs the department offers, and the advantages that they provide.

Current Cosumnes River College students and high school students that are interested in a career in technical education went to the open house to learn more about the program and the future education that CRC can provide them with.

“[The reason for this event is] the realization that they [high school students] can come to CRC, be close to home, low cost, small classes and not have to go far away for some of these technical careers that they don’t necessarily need a bachelor’s degree for, and they can still get a job,” said CRC’s Outreach Specialist, Peggy Ursin.

“I have always been interested in architecture, but I never knew how to achieve my dream,” said Jessica Keyes, 17, a senior in high school.

Keyes said that she is considering different community colleges in California, but is looking at CRC as a possible choice to stay close to her family.

CRC’s technology department offers different interests in technical careers such as: Agriculture & Plant Sciences, Animal Sciences, Automotive, Culinary Arts Management, Building Trades and many more.

Professor of Construction, Building Inspection Technology and department chair Ryan Connally said the technology department is now beginning to focus their attention towards local high schools as enrollment approaches to encourage high school graduates to apply at CRC.

“We want to heighten the awareness of students here on campus and our local feeder schools,” Connally said.

“There’s kind of a newly invigorated push at the high school level [for technical careers],” Connally said.

The open house showcased CRC’s Tiny House from Oct. 15, which won fourth place in the competition.
They offered tours of the inside of the tiny house and showed the different features of the house.

CRC’s spring 2017 class schedule is now available for viewing. Ursin hopes that students who are interested in a technical career will take advantage of all the classes CRC offers its students and will register for upcoming spring classes.