Parsons USD 503 teachers know leadership can be learned, and leadership skills developed, for those students willing to put in the time and the effort.
Creating a positive environment in which that can happen is something Parsons teachers provide, often encouraging students to step up who may not see themselves in those roles, but who teachers see have abilities.
Computerized drafting and robotics teacher Bruce Rea said it is incredible to see students come into those roles and quickly grow when they are entrusted with such positions in classroom and cooperative community efforts.
PHS senior Jaeden Ragsdale is one such example.
After looking at a CAD drawing of a part on the computer, and putting the design on an SD card, Ragsdale and Tanner Perez went in to check out the water jet cutter the district received last year and worked through all the preparations to cut the needed part for welding teacher Travis Brumback. They put the SD card in the machine and waited for it to read the image. Ragsdale then put the machine through a precut run, and watched as the cutter, minus the water, moved along the pattern, ensuring it fit within the edges of the piece of aluminum he had screwed down in the machine. After a few more checks, Ragsdale pushed the button and the machine roared into action. He said it would take the machine about 18 minutes to cut the part.
Mr. Rea said he had two designated seniors last year, Eli Koger and Daniel Jauregui, who set up and learned to operate the water jet cutter upon its arrival and then taught others to use it. This year, he chose Ragsdale for the job.
“Jaeden is the one who has been training others. I challenged him this fall to learn it. He’s pretty well independently learned it himself,” Rea said of Ragsdale learning to operate the machine. “I asked him to step up and he has trained four other seniors on it. I’m really proud of him.”
Mr. Rea said he showed Ragsdale a few basics and where the manual was. Ragsdale said Koger left a laminated instruction sheet with the machine, to help guide students who came after him. Ragsdale used that along with the manual to learn the machine. He was also able to text Koger with any questions he had.
He explained some of the details of the machine’s operations.
“It’s pretty useful,” Ragsdale said of the water jet cutter. “All it really takes is maintenance.”
Once someone has it down, he said the machine is “pretty easy to operate.” When Ragsdale felt he was ready to put the machine into action for the first time, he let Mr. Rea know. Rea came in and they pushed the start button together to ensure Ragsdale’s safety, given the cutter pushes out water at 4,200 psi (pounds per square inch) to cut through metal. Ragsdale had it down.
Rea held up a small square piece of 1/8 inch aluminum the machine had cut and showed the precision of the cuts on each side. He said they cannot get that precision or accuracy on aluminum with the plasma cutter they have in the weld shop.
Ragsdale is one of the PHS CAD students applying for a part-time position that is open at Power Flame. He said he is appreciative of the class and how it has taught him how to use larger pieces of expensive equipment like the water jet cutter and how to maintain them, in addition to the safety protocols they learn, which allows for such an opportunity as working at Power Flame. Rea said he is happy to recommend Ragsdale, who has shown his willingness to learn, take on a challenge, and has demonstrated leadership skills.
Rea said there are a several industries in Parsons that like to hire his students in their senior year for part-time work and often the industries hire them directly after they graduate high school.
That said, Power Flame likely won’t get to keep these two students for long.
Ragsdale said his future plans are to be a 3-D animator, “but a job in drafting wouldn’t hurt.”
Perez said he is planning to pursue aerospace engineering more than likely.