Navigating the five academies of Cedar Ridge High School is standard practice for the campus’ 75 Academy Ambassadors, who collectively help hundreds of prospective students, community members and business partners throughout the year to learn more about academy offerings.
Academy Ambassadors work closely with Cedar Ridge Academy Specialist Rachel Sotelo to keep an open dialogue regarding Career and Technical Education (CTE) programming and share the mission of CTE with campus visitors. The Ambassadors are consistently the leaders of campus tours and are passionate speakers who represent the academies offered across the campus.
“Our Ambassadors are the face and voice of our academies,” Sotelo said. “Through this organization, our students have the opportunity to speak to everyone from a kindergarten student to business partners about how academies work at Cedar Ridge.”
Cedar Ridge Senior Devin DeAnda has been an Academy Ambassador for more than two years and has had the opportunity to exemplify the necessity of CTE facilities and classes within the academies. While leading tours of the campus, Devin said he often explains the benefits of “practicing what the teacher preaches” and getting hands-on experience through CTE labs.
“Usually whenever younger students come to Cedar Ridge, they’re always amazed by the cool classrooms we have set up,” Devin said. “As Academy Ambassadors, we show them that yes, this is cool equipment we have, but at the same time we help them understand we have these facilities to actually apply our skills instead of having abstract ideas in our heads.”
While the Academy Ambassadors showcase Cedar Ridge to campus visitors, the group also makes a concerted effort to visit campuses that feed into the high school to ensure students are knowledgeable about what to expect in the future.
“It’s exciting to see our Academy Ambassadors confidently represent Cedar Ridge to a wide array of visitors and future students,” Cedar Ridge Principal Lynette Thomas said. “The Academy Ambassadors program, led by Rachel Sotelo, does an excellent job of showcasing the successes of our campus academies while building strong leaders in our students.”
