Ready to Make a Mark – Waukee Students Celebrate Milestone Moments

Skilled Trades Signing Day

It’s a week of milestone moments for a group of students in our district. 

First up, the second annual Skilled Trades Signing Day. After years of hard work, 16 seniors are making a very important decision.

“It was great seeing that a bunch of people are going down this path,” says Jackson Virgil. “Still wanting to aspire to do something great with their lives.”

“All of us just love building something with our hands and getting experience,” adds Luke Von Feldt.  “I’m just happy for the 15 here and hoping the best for their futures.” 

A future that’s bright because of the experiences provided and the opportunities earned throughout their work-based learning journey.

“I’m pretty prepared,” says Virgil. “I’ve made a lot of connections. I feel pretty good about it.” 

CNA Pinning Ceremony

Our future-ready success is not stopping there for Waukee students. The APEX program celebrated Pinning Day, by honoring their first ever CNA class. This is another set of students getting hands-on experience, in the most powerful way. 

“Seeing the need in health care, especially right now, it’s cool that my class is able to go and feel that need and serve in the community,” says Jenna Maifeld. 

“Going into the CNA class, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” says Avery Shepherd. “Now I’ve narrowed it down to what specialty I want to do, which is pediatric oncology and I am dead set on it. I really think it’s awesome that I found my way like that.”

Throughout the last couple of years health care heroes have been front and center. That calling continues with this group. They are ready to help their community. 

“When we were working at Kennybrook, there was a resident who had cancer. She was telling me how thankful she is for her doctors and how far she’s come along with cancer,” shares Shepherd. “I was like yeah, I want to be that person.”

“I was caring for a patient in the hospital and they came up to our class and told us how much of a difference we made in their hospital experience,” adds Maifeld. “It warmed my heart to able to see that we helped that patient physically and emotionally.”