Orange Cove High CTE students showcase their innovation and design skills

Monday, March 10, 2025 5:27PM PT
ORANGE COVE, Calif. (KFSN) -- Career Technical Education classes at Orange Cove High School are giving students a chance to show off their innovation and design skills.

Their creativity is running wild as they showcase skills they've learned along the way, like Gisella Huitron, who 3D Printed Sonic the Hedgehog.

"For my little brother, because he likes Sonic," Gisella said.

She's part of the Manufacturing and Engineering Pathway at Orange Cove High School.

Classes are taught by Omero Salinas.



Before students get to come up with creative creations, they've got to get past the fundamentals.

"Some of the basic skills they'll learn at the beginning is just to measure things," Salinas said.

Students then move on to learning the design software on the computer.

Salinas says that's where things can get challenging.

"There's a lot of settings they have to learn, a lot of new language that they have to adopt because there's new vocabulary and stuff," Salinas said.



Printing comes with some trial and error and teaches a students a large dose of patience as they put their project together.

"To assemble all the pieces once, I already had them it took me a little bit over five hours," Gisella said.

Students move through the pathway by learning how to properly use machinery.

That includes cutting wood.

In the advanced class, they go back to the drawing board to design their own homes.



First on the computer, then by creating detailed models.

Each of them put their own personal touch on their masterpiece.

Students receive a certification each year they're in the program.

That includes AutoCAD, which is a design and drafting software used in architecture, construction, engineering and manufacturing.

They also become dually-enrolled to start earning college credits.



Leslie Madrid believes this pathway will pay off in the future.

"I feel like that will really help me later on to put on my resume. I feel like it really makes me stand out," Leslie said.

Salinas says he hopes students who make their way through the pathway see all of the potential options for their future.

He also teaches a course over at Citrus Middle School. He teaches the very basics of engineering there, which piques the interest of students to join the pathway here at the high school.

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