There are many fun elective options for you to take throughout high school, and for most of your picks, you don’t have to think twice about them because they are for your enjoyment. But, to graduate high school, you have to take at least 2 semesters of a CTE/Fine Arts class. Here at Sahuaro, we have 7 options for CTE: Culinary, Yearbook, Sports Medicine, Engineering, Automotive, Computer Science, and AP Computer Science.

Culinary (in room 130 with Ms. Thomas or Mr. Aaron) is a class where you can learn about the history of certain foods from different cultures, learn how to safely and correctly operate a kitchen, cook, and of course eat. For those of you who have a passion for cooking and are considering taking it to the next step, culinary also offers an Industry-approved Servsafe Certificate to students meeting high standards in food service and restaurant education. One of the students said, “The culinary program at Sahuaro is considered a privilege to most. We get to learn life skills while also learning about the history of the food we consume every day, other cultural foods, and how the food industry works. Mr. Aaron is such a helpful and patient person with all students.”

Yearbook (in room 230 with Ms. Slade) is a class where you get to plan and put together a yearbook that people may or may not show their kids many years from now. Yearbook class allows you to be creative in coming up with a theme, planning the layout, taking pictures, and going to events to capture exciting moments.

Sports Medicine (in room 333 with Ms. Pita) is a class that will help you with any job in the medical field. Throughout the year you will learn the basic anatomy and medical terminology of the human body, body systems and functions, emergency care, nutrition, and how to apply athletic tape to certain areas. Instead of just learning from notes or lectures, you will get hands-on experience and even become certified in First Aid and CPR. Students will also be introduced to HOSA which promotes career opportunities in the healthcare industry.

Engineering (in room 406 with Mr. Davis) is a great way to practice working in teams to accomplish cool engineering projects. You will learn how to design, plan, and build projects. If you plan on being an engineer in the future this class can prepare you for that, but even if you aren’t it can still be something fun for you to learn just to keep the information in the back of your head. If you enjoy the first year, you can come back for engineering 3, 4 which can also give you U of A credit. The only catch is that you have to be enrolled or have completed precalculus.

Automotive (in room 407/408 with Mr. Ramsey) is a class to learn all about cars. Students will learn automotive maintenance, safety, and how to use power tools and hand tools. They will also learn about brakes, suspension, the electrical side of things, and the overall performance of the car and engine. Students could also participate in SkillsUSA to receive leadership training for going to a trade school.

Computer Science/AP Computer Science (in room 404 with Mr. Christian) will help you succeed in the world we live in today. In our society, technology runs basically our entire life, and whether we want to or not we are going to have to try our best to keep up. The best way to do that is by understanding and gaining knowledge about the subject. The class is lab-based so most of the time you will be actually working on computers, and learning. Students will learn also learn Python which is an actual programming language.