Despite the end of the school year and the arrival of summer break, the Collinsville Career and Technical Education (CTE) department is a program always at the forefront of its teachers’ focus, even when school isn’t in session.
Although the CTE department may be considered small, it is mighty – offering a wide variety of classes, from nursing to agriculture to business programs of study. Lynn Uselton, Collinsville’s CTE director, oversees the full breadth of these offerings.
“We make sure we’re offering the classes that we’re going to get the most interest in and evaluate what’s going to bring us the most funding,” Uselton said. “If we can do something that’s better for the kids, and it’s bringing in more funding, then that’s what I try to do and bring to the administration so they can take a look and see if they’re in agreement… I’m kind of the pencil person on that.”
With a wide variety of classes to choose from, the state requires students to select a CTE area of focus in order to complete an Industry-Based Certification by graduation. For nearly every CTE class, there is a certification to accompany it.
This year, around 70 certifications were earned by students, ranging from floral, welding, food management, vet tech and CNA certifications.
In addition, through Grayson College, classes such as Business Information Management, Child Development and Welding offer technical college credit.
“Every year, I think we have more available,” Uselton said. “When we came, there was very little involvement. Over time, it’s just built and built and built, and now we have over 23 varieties of CTE classes to take.”
Compared to other CTE programs across the state, Collinsville may be smaller, but that doesn’t mean it offers fewer opportunities. It just may take more hands in the mix to keep the program from being overlooked.
“Big schools have a lot of money coming in, and so their variety and growth is easier to accomplish,” Uselton said. “We are a small school, and we have less coming in, yet we can still grow and still look forward. We just wear a lot of hats.”
Alongside Uselton is her husband, Chris Uselton, who teaches wildlife management, equine science, agricultural mechanics and fabrications and designs. The pair have been at Collinsville for nearly 20 years and have developed a personal mission in that time span.
“We’re trying to create a person coming out of high school that would be ahead or be more competitive than the next person,” Chris said. “And you know, it always goes back to us. Are we accomplishing that? And I think we have. We see success stories and individuals that we have known when they were 14 years old entering the program, and now they’re in their 30s, and they’re professional people with professional jobs.”
Cultivating a well-rounded student can’t happen without covering the core curriculum, but the CTE program also emphasizes topics that extend past foundational academics, preparing students with skills they can use long after graduation.
“We cover so much stuff that’s beyond the book,” Lynn said. “I see online sometimes people say, ‘Oh, that needs to be taught in school.’ And we look at each other, and we’re like, ‘We do that, we’re teaching that.’ So it’s going to prepare them… Math that you actually have to do at the store, budgets that you actually have to do or interest rates on a credit card.”
Lynn teaches these important topics in Principles of Business, Marketing and Finance, Business Information Management I and II and Career Preparation I and II.
Beyond his role in the classroom, Chris also serves as the adviser for the Collinsville High School FFA chapter, coaching the horse and poultry judging teams. While an FFA membership isn’t required for students, it falls within the CTE wheelhouse, and the two often go hand in hand.
“FFA increases participation. It’s easier for the kids to see something that’s more fun if we’re going to make a project that takes long hours and time after school and get to travel for it,” Chris said. “And to do that, you’ve got to be an FFA member. And the better you are at it, the farther you’re going to advance and get to travel. So that’s going to encourage people to be in the CTE classes, and of course, we’re going to educate them when they’re here.”
Similar to FFA, FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) is another in-school organization that helps students become more involved in what the CTE program offers.
The Useltons’ daughter, Kate Nix, plays a major role in FCCLA and the community outreach events the organization participates in with FFA.
“We really just work all together,” Nix said. “I think that’s my favorite part about Collinsville is that it is small and close. We work really well together, and we join forces where we might have smaller numbers individually between student council or FCCLA. But when we go together, I think we can accomplish pretty much anything.”
Since Collinsville ISD is more tightly-knit, the CTE department draws in lots of encouragement from the community in support of what the program does throughout the year.
“The toy drive is our big community service that FFA and FCCLA do, and what we do is we get monetary donations usually from the community, and we purchase new clothing, new shoes, toys and presents for kids in Collinsville,” Nix said. “The community supports not only our programs but supports the things that we’re passionate about, such as the toy drive that we raise thousands of dollars for in order to purchase those things. This year, we helped 108 students at Collinsville.”
Nix teaches a mix of agriculture and family and consumer sciences classes, ranging from Principles of Agriculture to Floral Design to Child Development. She also co-advises the FFA team alongside Chris, leading both the floriculture team and the Leadership Development Events team, a competition that focuses on public speaking and leadership skills.
While she places great value on classroom curriculum, Nix also recognizes the importance of the community service they participate in – and so do the students.
“They’re involved in athletics, they’re involved in band and they’re also involved in this (CTE), and they see the service – they have a heart to better themselves,” Nix said. “They love the classes, but they also are so eager to go through donated clothes at the Salvation Army. The first time we went, we took 35 kids. We got a lot done and actually got too much done. They didn’t have enough work for others. They work hard, and they represent the school so well.”
Elizabeth Ortiz also leads FCCLA, spearheading the idea for the toy drive and helping to double student participation. She teaches the majority of the family and consumer sciences
classes, guiding students through budgeting, time management, goal setting, household responsibilities and preparation for adult life.
With a broad view of the CTE program’s impact, Ortiz values the opportunity to witness its influence on students firsthand.
“I love seeing students grow a passion for what they’ve learned,” Ortiz said. “You will see them out in public working somewhere, and they’re enjoying their job and putting skills that they learned in class to use. They’ll come back and tell you the story about how it happened and what they had to do. I think that’s the most rewarding – seeing how much they care for what they do.”
Considering she helps students physically fill out scholarship applications and craft résumés and cover letters, Ortiz feels particularly proud of the unprecedented amount of scholarship awards given to students this year.
“Of all the seniors combined, they received $430,000 in scholarships,” Ortiz said. “Twenty-one students got just over $430,000 in local money through the Council Education Foundation.”
For both Ortiz and Nix, teaching practical skills is a key focus – and likely part of why Collinsville students are so deserving of such support.
“Our classes focus a lot on hands-on projects,” Nix said. “Every kid is going to need to know how to cook their own food. Every kid, I believe, should know where their food comes from. If a button falls off a student’s shirt, they should know how to sew that back on.”
Because the CTE program emphasizes hands-on and authentic experience, students benefit both immediately and in the long run.
“In our world, there’s shortcuts to almost everything,” Nix said. “But there’s only one way to make a floral arrangement, there’s only one way to sew a button on and there’s only one way to weld something together. Google isn’t going to help them scramble eggs – they have to do it, and they have to put the time and the effort into completing that task. Our classes teach them the grit that you have to have in life because there’s not necessarily an easy way out in life.”
Teaching the value of hard work is crucial, but helping students stay grounded in the community is just as important – a vision shared across the entire CTE program.
“We all want to give back to the community, and we want to see more kindness in the world,” Nix said. “We want the kids to be good people, and the whole department is aligned that way. We want them to have the skills, and we want them to be successful in their careers and have jobs – that is our big priority. But shortly after that, we want them to be good people and contribute to society.”
No matter the specific CTE wing or its corresponding teacher, the department as a whole cares deeply for its students. And with such shared dedication, Collinsville CTE students can’t help but excel.
“When they get to our classes, they have to actually do it right, and that helps them develop those work ethics and those life skills,” Nix said. “We want them to be successful in whatever they do after high school and all those skills—time management and work ethic and teamwork—all of that is developed by doing things. We might teach them in different ways, but we’re all teaching them the same things, and that makes successful people after they graduate.”
