It’s Journeypersons And Their ITA Shadows At Kapolei High

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Clifford Sasano of Air Engineering (right) supervises Kapolei High School Industrial Technology Academy students Emerson Soueira-Favor and Donovan Nakama on Sept. 3 as they install a condenser under a portable classroom building. Photo from Brian Ichida.

On Sept. 3 Kapolei High School’s Industrial Technology Academy and Career Technical Education completed their first-ever Shadow a Union Journeyperson Day.

The career-shadowing opportunity allowed students in ITA to work with union journeymen to gain real on-the-job experience.

Throughout the day students worked alongside journeymen from the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 675, and International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 50 to prepare portable classrooms that will eventually be used for social studies, English and technology lab classes.

The classrooms received Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning as well as exterior and interior paint. Student construction on these classrooms began last year as part of “The Big Build” program and is projected to be completed during this school year.

“Because of budget cuts and time constraints we are still finishing up the classroom portables that we began building last year,” said Brian Ichida, woodshop and carpentry technology instructor. “We’re planning another (Shadow a Union Journeyperson) day in October. This was round one, and we plan to do more about every month and a half.”

Each round includes 12 of the 70 ITA students. Ichida’s plan is to give each student the opportunity to participate.

“I thought it up because I felt that I really wanted to give the kids a feeling of what it’s like on the job while they’re still in high school,“he added.

“The first round was a huge success because the journeypersons came up to me after and said that the students have great work ethic, and they enjoyed working with them.”

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