Techniques Feb 2013 - 33

At-risk Students

a national animal care/recovery/adoption program, and participates in the
Native American Veterinary Services
Program, a division of the Pennsylvania
Veterinary Foundation. The foundation
provides free veterinary care for Native
Americans living on reservations. In the
case of Monument Valley, the vet science
students get to observe and assist these
experienced volunteer veterinarians and
technicians. And as in most successful
CTE programs, MVHS has a long list of
industry partners and sponsors.

Seeing the Results
All education lives with the pressure of
return on investment (ROI). The public
wants to know what they get for their tax
dollars that are spent on students who often are well educated but not employable.
Normally, ROI is measured by taxable income that is returned to the public coffers
through a lifetime of productive employment and careers. In the case of Monument Valley and the Veterinary Science
Program, significant numbers of students
are ready for entry-level employment as

photos courtesy of Colin Smith

Racheal Holiday

Racheal has a quiet sense of power
that becomes evident when engaged in
discussions about her values and goals.
Her power and determination are also
evident in her commitment to co-ed
wrestling. Racheal is Girls’ Arizona state
champion in her weight class. Racheal
plans a career in nursing and will attend
the College of Eastern Utah. She is the
oldest of her siblings, and leaving home
in the fall might prove to be complicated
because she manages responsibilities that
easily challenge many adults, but she will
figure out how to balance everything, and
nothing will hold her back.
Dawnae James is president of the FFA
chapter at MVHS. Dawnae lives in town
but also finds time to help manage a

www.acteonline.org

Dawnae James
family reservation ranch with crops of
corn and squash, and herds of sheep,
cattle, goats and horses. Dawnae
has four horses of her own and
regularly rides competitively in rodeos
throughout the southwest. She is a
rodeo champion and highly skilled
rider, barrel racer, roper and horse
caregiver. Dawnae has the instincts,
skills and experience that drive unique
and subtle communications with each
of her horses. Although I’m sure that
her love of animals will always be part
of her life, Dawnae is considering a
medical career that will focus on either
physical therapy or veterinary medicine.
Dawnae also maintains a GPA above
3.0. She plans to attend Highlands
University in New Mexico.

veterinary assistants/technicians, but they
are also ready for postsecondary studies at
universities where they can leverage their
academics and career training into higher-level vet science professional careers.
But there are higher levels of defining
ROI. If student programs not only return
dollars through taxable income but also
return services to their families and communities, you’re looking at a “circle of investment” that satisfies the fiscal pressures
and also the cultural and spiritual values
of the Navajo Nation—love and respect of
family, community, land and animals.
A few years ago on a cold and windy
evening when Kayenta weather mandates
blankets, McBride was awakened to an
emergency. A herd of sheep had been
viciously attacked by a pack of coyotes
and mauled to life-threatening proportion. Aside from the apparent sadness of
innocent animals being attacked, these
sheep were the livelihood of a family, and
that family became everybody’s family. In
a timely manner, MVHS vet tech students
were awakened and went to work herding the sheep into trucks and ultimately
into the skilled hands of McBride and
the triage/surgical group of students who
cleaned, sutured and saved the herd.
Now that’s a return on investment!
Alan Helfman retired in 2010 from the
Los Angeles Unified School District where he
was director of external affairs for the Office
of Government Relations with a policy focus
on workforce and CTE. Currently, he is a
consultant with the Arizona Department of
Education and is charged with improving,
expanding and leveraging CTE programs. He
can be contacted at marakshi@yahoo.com.

Endnote
1. “Schools that Work” by Joe Klein appeared
in the November 19, 2012, Vol. 179, issue of
TIME. ACTE provided background information
for the article.

Celebrate the
positive impact
of CTE during
CTE Month in February. Visit www.
CTEmonth.com to see how you can
spread the message that CTE works!

February 2013 Techniques
33

Techniques Feb 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Techniques Feb 2013