For the past 30 years the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) has aimed to connect and support people and organizations of the South Bay subregion. So when it came time for the SBCCOG to develop a memento for attendees to take home from its annual General Assembly—which this year commemorated the organization’s three-decade milestone—it made sense to align with a local public school program that helps students whittle closer to their own career goals.
From left: Carter Preston, Nicole Martinez, Ivan Moreno and Doug Galt, career and technical teacher of Hawthorne High School’s Wood Technology Pathway, greet attendees in the exhibit hall of the SBCCOG’s recent 25th General Assembly.
Hawthorne High School’s student-led Wood Technology Pathway gives students hands-on experience in traditional woodworking, cabinetmaking, residential construction, furniture design and computer-aided manufacturing. The SBCCOG approached Doug Galt, the school’s career and technical teacher who leads the program, to design a wood coaster featuring the SBCCOG’s logo. Galt and his students worked with the program’s laser engraver to produce 400 SBCCOG-branded wood coasters.
Pathway program participants can potentially earn up to 14 units of college credit at El Camino College. Advanced students of its paid internship program complete larger-scale, real-world projects for paying clients, such as the SBCCOG coaster project.
“It was a great opportunity for the students to get real work experience, serve the community and raise money for our program,” said Galt of the SBCCOG project and other paid projects. “Students also made great connections in the [General Assembly’s] exhibit hall that will lead to more business for our student enterprise.” •
To learn more about the Wood Technology Pathway, visit bit.ly/woodtechnologypathway