By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT — Sugar River Valley Regional Tech Center announced this week that Scott Pope has been named New Hampshire Work Based Learning Faculty Champion CTE teacher of the year.
“It’s certainly a surprise,” said Pope. Pope said the honor acknowledges a team effort by faculty, administration, students and local manufacturing.
Now in his 31st year of teaching, Pope was involved in the tech center from the beginning, when it was in the basement of the hospital. “John Goodrich, the director at the time, gave us the space and the support we needed to develop a quality program,” he said.
In the ‘90s, he said, local manufacturers were already aware of the graying of the workforce. “We had meetings about this,” said Pope. “And now it’s here. Our goal is to train the next generation and keep our economy strong and growing in the region.”
“As people have noticed the lack of skilled workers, people are almost painfully aware of the need for students in career and tech training.” Pope was first named Teacher of the Year in 2001 and now again in 2018. In 2006 he was also the first NIMS (National Institute of Metalworking Standards) instructor in the New England Region. He is a NIMS-level-one certified instructor and served six times as the team leader for NIMS Certification teams.
Pope also established a work-based learning partnership with Whelen Engineering.
“About seven or eight years ago I started to develop this program with Whelen. Then-president John Olsen wanted to develop a Little League of Manufacturing, and my principal gave it his blessing and support,” said Pope. “I worked with them to develop a sustainable, quality program.”
Students in Pope’s course take a bus to the Whelen factory to work alongside Whelen employees and learn on-the-job manufacturing engineering skills. This includes an activity-based Job Shadowing program, taught one quarter each year for level one students and a second quarter for level two students.
Working with Whelen, Pope also developed a curriculum to share with other schools, which was made available on the Whelen Engineering website for all to use.
This past summer, in a program with Fall Mountain schools, girls grades 6-9 led a two-week nontraditional program at Whelen Engineering during the summer. Pope said the girls wished their three days in the manufacturing facility could have been five, and said the company has been supportive of efforts to get more women into manufacturing. “They’ve found women are really excelling in these positions, and they really enjoyed it.”
Pope is currently mentoring three new teachers this year while simultaneously breaking in a new tech center director.
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