Meet New Student Chazz Massey

Hi, I am a new student in the Stillwater Transitions program and I came from the Twin Cities Academy in St Paul.  I love to draw, play video games and perform with my rock band.

I just got back from a 3 day Leadership Conference in Alexandria, MN for the Stillwater SKILLSUSA chapter.  It was exhausting but fun.  We participated in team building activities and problem solving groups with other students from around the state of Minnesota.  It was a real opportunity to meet new people and learn about them as well as learning about my strengths. I am volunteering at River Market in downtown Stillwater as my first actual job experience.

Art work by Chazz Massey

SKILLSUSA ~Adopt A Highway~

On Thursday, October 5th, the Stillwater Transition’s chapter of SkillsUSA participated in Adopt-A-Highway. We cleaned along Highway 36, we were split up into two groups, one group was led by our advisor Mike Albers and cleaned the side of the highway that went with the traffic, and there was another group that went with one of the Transition paras Michelle and we cleaned the opposite side of the highway that went against the traffic.

We picked up a lot of interesting things along the way. We saw two dead skunks, which was really gross, and we also saw some bones of some animal. Both of the groups had a total of 10 trash bags that we used to collect the trash that we found. We also were provided with a reflective vest and a pair of work gloves. We left Oak Park around 10:30 a.m and we returned back by 1:00 p.m.

Overall, this was a fun adventure for our SkillsUSA Chapter, we got to work as a team by doing something that most of us really don’t enjoy doing. We are planning on doing another time this month, but we are not exactly sure. This was a great experience for us and we are looking forward to doing it again.

Hwy 36 

The Clean Up Crew

Transitions SkillsUSA Stillwater

We, the SkillsUSA Chapter at the Stillwater Transition Program, put together a retreat that enabled us to plan out the events for the rest of the school year.

We originally planned to take a bus to Lake Elmo Park Reserve, have a barbecue, and plan out events for the rest of the school year. At the start of the retreat, we split up into 5 different groups/ committees that we got to choose based on our interests within the chapter.

The five different groups that we split into were Public Relations, Social Events, Ways+Means, Community Service, and Professional Development. Each group had the task of planning two different activities that relate to each committee. The whole experience was very fun! It was a good way to work as a team and get to know each other a little bit better as a Chapter.

Historical Research Scavenger Hunt

Team Stillwater

Friday, September 15th one of the Transitions program student team building activities was to work in groups to compete in a downtown Stillwater historical scavenger hunt.  Teams were assembled based upon a mix of new students with seasoned veterans of the Transition Program. The task was to find, ask or google as many answers as we could in the time we were allotted. We had 30 historical questions listed and the winning team found 21 of the correct answers!!  Working in groups everyone participated and played a roll in their groups success. A fun community team building activity for all.

Team Ponies

Congratulations Cali Capistrant

Recognition of her service to District #834

 The past two years Cali Capistrant has been working as a Office Assistant to Kelly Seivert at Central Services at District #834.  Cali truly enjoyed her time learning many facets of an Office Assistant job. Her requirements included improving her typing skills, data entry, filing, operating a printer, sorting & delivering mail, as well as many other tasks required in an office setting.

Cali is taking her skills as an Office Assistant to the next level and has been chosen to participate in the Forest Lake Project Search program at the State Capitol next year.  Cali had to take steps to apply to the program including the completion of application forms, a resume of skills, acquiring letters of recommendation, an participating in interviews before she was accepted in to the small program.

We at Transitions & Central Services are all very proud of the growth and maturity Cali has exhibited in the past two years at the Transitions program.  We will all miss her smiling face and positive attitude but we know she is moving on to bigger and better opportunities.  Best of luck Cali!!!

Barb, Cali & Scott Capistrant

Eagle Point Elementary Pen Pals

Pen Pal Exchange 2016-17

The Transition program participated in a year long pen pal exchange with 3rd grade students at Eagle Point Elementary school in Oakdale.

This year the culminating activity was to meet your pen pal in person. Students from both programs truly enjoyed the year of exchanging letters and learning about each other.  Activities and fun were shared by all.

Northeast Metro 916 Awards 2016-17

Construction Occupations Stephen Thomson

May 25th 2017 Northeast Metro 916 Career & Technical Center held the yearly awards ceremony at the White Bear Lake campus.  Guest speaker Pa Nhia Her was a recent graduate of 916 Dental program and is currently working in the Dental field as her career.  She spoke of the challenges she has faced and how she has worked to overcome each obstacle to achieve her dreams.  She stated "Life never works out the way you plan it. But don't let the set backs stop you from achieving your goals." The following Transition students received awards in the photos below. Please congratulate them on their hard work and outstanding achievement.

Auto Dismantling Max Coleman & Nikolay Getchell

Education & Human Services Brittany Sobanski

Animal Science Allison Kazmierczak