To experience what it’s like to be on the job and help the community, the electrical technology students went on a field trip to Habitat for Humanity last Wednesday where they wired houses.
“We [did] what we call rough-in, which means putting in the wire throughout the whole house,” electrical tech teacher Mr. Ed Del Toro said. “The other two houses, we did what we call trim out, and that’s where we put all the lights in and the ceiling fans.”
The electrical program is teamed up with Platinum Electric. They have the contracts for the houses and they pulled permits to work on them. The students got exposed to the job by working under journeyman who told them what to do and how to do it. They experienced what the job is like in other ways, too.
“It was cold outside. We work whether it’s cold or hot, whether it’s rainy or not, so they experienced that,” Mr. Del Toro said. “Also what’s it’s like to have lunch. There’s no tables. There’s nothing around. They have to sit on the floor and eat.”
Senior Nicholas Estrada went on the field trip. He said he worked well on splices (attaching two electrical cords by twisting the end strands together) and making sure the wires in the houses weren’t damaged, but he had some challenges, too.
“The struggle was with running home runs to the breaker box because we had to shoot the wires up and guide them through the roof and make sure it is secured
,” Estrada said, “but then I got a partner to come help and both of us got a total of 16 home runs down which are critical for the house.”
Senior Melina Alvarez also went on the field trip. She worked on trimming out and was the foreman/leader of her group.
“We learned to work in real-life which gets us ready to take on a career after high school,” Alvarez said.
