LEBEC, Calif. (KERO) — At El Tejon Middle School, which only has 225 students, many students say their principal creates opportunities both on and off the mountain.
- El Tejon Middle School has 225 students.
- Despite being in a smaller town, students say their principal gives them big opportunities.
- For Kern’s Kindness, 23ABC Neighborhood Reporter Avery Elowitt spoke with Principal Corey Hansen about how she shapes education in the mountains.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“I feel like their opportunities here are not limited. But I feel like the mindset was like that for a while, that they felt like they were just gonna be working anywhere in town. They didn’t have an out,” said Corey Hansen, who was an English teacher for 25 years.
But now, she’s been principal for five years at El Tejon Middle School.
Since then, students have come forward to share Hansen's impact on their education.
“There’s just a bunch of opportunities that I don’t really see a lot of other schools having,” said Gabriella Jimenez, an eighth grader and Student Voice Ambassador at El Tejon.
Growing up in the mountains, Hansen saw a need– to show students that their options are not limited to the mountains.
“It’s important that our kids see the world because a lot of them are just on the hills,” said Hansen.
One example is bringing the Future Farmers of America program to the middle school.
“Building the FFA yard was probably my favorite memory. I have a really cool FFA president this year… He was brand new last year, but he kind of slid into the role naturally,” said Hansen. “Watching natural leaders find a spot in leadership when they wouldn’t necessarily have had that spot before is really cool.”
For Brycen Braz, an eighth grader and the FFA president at El Tejon, he felt at home with the program.
“I grew up in a farm town, so I always wanted to be involved in FFA, and then when I moved up here, Ms. Hansen and other staff, they started the FFA program here. So I just really want to get involved and learn a lot more about it,” said Brycen.
The program has brought chickens, bunnies, turkeys, and llamas on campus.
On Thanksgiving, students slaughter one of the turkeys they raised at the school, which is given to a family in need so they can enjoy the holiday.
Brycen thanks Hansen for making this program possible.
“It’s a small school and she has a lot to do even though it’s a small school. But she still gets through it and she helps other kids while doing her job,” said Brycen. “She does a bunch of things for all of us. She gets lots of field trips, she gets grants and everything.”
But it’s not just the FFA program that Hansen launched within her past five years as principal.
One school group puts middle schoolers in a leadership position to shape the world around them.
“We have a student voice ambassador team that works… they’re all different kids, mostly seventh and eighth graders, but all different friendship groups. And then they just work on where they see a problem,” said Hansen.
Gabriella says the program has instilled change within the school, such as changing the cafeteria menu.
“Student Voice Ambassador, it just allows the students at El Tejon to have a voice in what they want,” said Gabriella.
Outside of SVA, Hansen says the school recently added the Career Technical Education curriculum, or CTE.
Over the summer, staff transformed an old room into a CTE lab, introducing visual technology and communication, cosmetology, criminology, EMT training, and more.
Hansen hopes to expand the student voice on campus, as well as the school’s culinary arts program, and build more extracurricular opportunities so students can find their passion.
Hansen invites parents to get involved with their monthly parenting partners meeting to stay posted.
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