High school students still learn sentence diagramming, exponential expressions and important dates in America’s history. But these days, Calcasieu Parish students enjoy more opportunities for learning, doing and experiencing than ever before. They are doing it with help from local industry leaders.

Wednesday, Lake Area Industry Alliance member representatives heard Calcasieu Parish School Superintendent Shannon LaFargue, Sowela Technical Community College Chancellor Neil Aspinall and McNeese State University President Daryl Burckel talk about the partnership between area industry and local education.

“We truly believe that we solely have the responsibility to prepare our students for the university pathway or the career and technical education pathway,” LaFargue said. “ I talked to our principals and together we’ve set that standard. That is what  the community expects from us.”

Reading, writing and ‘rithmatic aren’t taking the back seat in schools, but are being integrated with opportunities such as talking to astronauts, learning graphic design, producing television documentaries, gaining HVAC skills, doing a three-day rotation at a hospital, having fun at robotics and engineering camps and chalking up college credits before high school graduation.

Those opportunities happen through funding, special programs, mentorships, apprentice opportunities, and providing campus buildings, just a few examples of how Lake Area Industry Alliance and some of the over 30 companies that make up the Alliance have partnered with local schools.

Westlake Corporation is a Partner in Education with eleven schools. Alliance member Phillips 66 built the Sowela Process Technology Building on Sowela’s campus.

Lake Area Industry Alliance Executive Director Jim Rock said the Alliance is gearing up now for its annual Chem Expo, and is expecting over 2,000 students. Hundreds of LAIA company members volunteer. The Expo brings sixth graders from area schools to the Lake Charles Civic Center to showcase science in action. The Citgo Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex awarded scholarships last week, a 36-year tradition.

LaFargue said he often feels that the  responsibility for every graduate’s smooth and seamless transition to the next level of education and training rests on the shoulders of CPSB.

“We  want them to have the skill sets necessary to transition  into industry, into the business world, into the workforce and stay in Southwest Louisiana,” LaFargue said.

Sowela has been ranked the No. 1 community college in Louisiana since 2018, ranked by education, career and cost outcomes. In 2023 it was ranked 12th nationwide based on data evaluated through the National Clearing House Association. It is the top producer of engineering technology graduates magazines because of the number of graduates that go to work in the petrochemical industry.

“While Sowela does not participate in the federal student loan program because we don’t want our students leaving with debt, we do lots of work to garner scholarships,” Aspinall said. “We get a lot of industry partnerships who provide scholarship money. They provide equipment and technology. Many of the company representatives serve our program advisory committees, and what we’d like them to do is tell us what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. We correct that. We want to know how our students are performing when they leave and they go on the job.”

Sowela, with the help of local industry, has a machine technology degree program and it added LNG to its P-tech program in 2019.

Aspinall said from the time he was 5 or 6 years old, the importance of a good work ethic was drummed into his head. Today is different. To satisfy employers’ needs for workers who not only know how to do the job, but also how to show up on time and get along with people, the college has created a Work Ethics Instruction course.

“We are an integrated group,” Burckel said, about the school, college and university. “We are all in the business of preparing the workforce of developing talent for our Southwest Louisiana region. We want to see a credentialed, skilled workforce, whether that’s the Sowela or the McNeese path.”

McNeese is currently working with CPSB on an alternate certification for teachers, teachers who want to be in education.

Burckel said he has noticed that while many high school seniors have the academic skills to become a McNeese freshman, some are not on par with other 18 year olds as far as social-emotional skills. One of the reasons for that, he thinks, is cell phone use among youngsters.

“They can go right here and get instant access to an answer,” he said, “pulling out his cell phone.”

Instead of worrying about how to deal with AI, McNeese is looking for the best ways to harness it to the university’s benefit, for instance in analyzing transcripts to see which courses transfer, something AI does in minutes that currently can take days.

This past yearMcNeese had 26 students complete internships with Westlake, Citgo, Phillips 66 LyondellBasell and other LAIA companies. .

“This semester, we have 13 more,” he said.

LAIA company employees serve on the university’s Industrial Advisory Board in the College of Business and Engineering to help ensure coursework is on target. He thanked LAIA members for its donations and making it possible to have a 24-hour study hall for engineering students.