Questar III BOCES celebrates Career and Technical Education Month®, an opportunity to showcase our students, while also recognizing the importance of our programs to the region and economy.
New York State is experiencing a skills gap. While 49% of New York jobs require skilled training – more education than high school, but less than a 4-year degree – only 37% of New Yorkers are trained at this level. Students enrolled in our CTE programs are learning the skills they need to help bridge this gap, while setting themselves up for successful careers in high-demand fields.
Be sure to follow us Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn to hear more about our programs and stories like Axton’s below.
Questar III BOCES Culinary student Axton Nack is a senior at Donald R. Kline Technical School from Ichabod Crane Central School District. Axton knew he wanted to be a chef at a young age, so attending Questar III was an easy choice for him.
As a hands-on learner, Axton appreciates the opportunity to spend his school day inside the kitchen, learning the skills for his future. He also values the opportunity to learn from Chef Repko who has the real world experience to back up what she teaches.
“She’s an awesome person and she really cares about us,” said Axton. “She’s pushed me to be the person she knew I could be. I feel like I have more of a bond with her compared to other teachers because she’s already doing something I want to do in my future. I can connect with and learn a lot more from her.”
Questar III CTE programs go beyond technical skills. Our teachers strive to prepare students with work readiness skills, which Axton has already used.
“We do a lot of work here for our future,” Axton said. “We recently completed our resumes, which I used to help get a second job. It’s nice learning this type of stuff in ELA because I’m not sure I would have otherwise.”
In addition to ELA their senior year, students take integrated math & science their junior year. These subjects are customized to each program, relating the subject to useful skills within the program.
“Math is a tough subject for me,” shared Axton. “But here, surrounding it with something that I want to do, it just made a lot more sense to me. Being able to gain the knowledge in a way that you want to understand is a nice benefit. For us, we learned a lot about recipe conversions and fractions.”
Axton is active in SkillsUSA and ProStart. With SkillsUSA, he gets to take part in community service projects, planning and executing fundraisers for competition, and attending competition itself, where he’ll be participating in the traditional culinary competition. ProStart, an industry-backed culinary arts program that our school follows, hosts their own competition where Axton will be preparing the entrée.
“One benefit to SkillsUSA and both competitions is being able to put them on your resume,” said Axton. “It proves that you can work with others for the greater good, which is very relatable to working in a restaurant, and also helps show you know what to do to support your business, team, and community.”
Axton had a unique opportunity to do an internship somewhere he has spent plenty of time in, the cafeteria at his former Ichabod Crane Middle School. Working with their Food Service Department, Axton assisted with both breakfast and lunch during his one-week internship.
“It was really eye opening,” Axton shared. “When I was younger, I’d walk through the line, see them for like two seconds, walk out, eat lunch, and move on. You don’t really get to see the whole behind the scenes until you work in it. It can be more difficult to prepare large scale meals, but it’s also a lot more rewarding to make a large group happy.”
When discussing the differences between a traditional high school and a CTE school, Axton knew his answer immediately.
“You learn a lot more about independence here,” Axton said. “You also get a sense of maturity by leaving your school, going somewhere else, and learning what you want to learn. When you come here, you feel like an adult.”
Like so many of our seniors, Axton is looking forward to graduation this June. He credits Questar III for helping him get a step ahead.
“Being here gives you a head start,” Axton said. “This program helped me get into the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, and that head start will help me learn even more quickly when I get there.”
After college, Axton will start working towards his career goals. Axton aspires to become an executive chef at a nice restaurant in a large, warm climate city.
