Month: January 2026

By Candace Carrier

January 15, 2026

Photos courtesy of the author.

Cover photo: The “Love Works” sign made by Candace’s CTE students.

I grew up in a rural area in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where agriculture runs the economy. My home county had more turkeys than people, everyone knew or was someone who grew up on a farm, and the local Wal-Mart had hitching posts for the Mennonite community, who still utilize horses and buggies for transportation. As a kid, I wasn’t great at sports. I played recreation softball when I was twelve. I pitched one no-hitter and made it to the All-Star team tryouts; however, I didn’t make the cut. In eighth grade, at the urging of some girlfriends, I participated on the drill team. After slipping on a wet football field at halftime of a home football game, I decided sports were too detrimental to my middle school ego. This is when career and technical education (CTE) firmly planted itself in my life. 

CTE courses include instruction in areas like business, agriculture, health and medical sciences, and technology. These classes not only provide students with academic knowledge but also offer opportunities to develop career skills and gain workforce experience. My CTE journey began with an exploratory agricultural education class that covered everything from leadership to welding, not to mention the FFA. The National FFA (Future Farmers of America) Organization is a co-curricular organization for students enrolled in CTE courses. It was created to give rural students an edge so they could be as competitive as their urban peers.

FFA is the largest youth organization in the world and provides opportunities for leadership and career development through competitive events. As a rural kid, agriculture classes and their club made me feel welcome and provided opportunities for growth. I was hooked.

The FFA provided me with opportunities that I otherwise may not have gotten as a poor, rural child being raised primarily by a single mom. I was able to host a German exchange student and then spend 14 days in Germany. To this day, that remains the only time I have traveled outside of the United States. 

I attended state and national conventions with other FFA members from across the nation. I tried new things and discovered I was pretty good at public speaking. I made lifelong friends that I still spend time with as an adult. Most importantly, wearing that blue jacket gave me the self-confidence I needed to navigate my adolescent years.

My love of CTE and the FFA led me to a full-time career as an agriculture teacher. I spent 21 years teaching agriculture in secondary classrooms in rural and rural-serving schools. I taught everything from veterinary science to ecology to welding. In the last 10 years of my career, I really focused on building my knowledge in agricultural mechanics and started a dual-enrollment welding program at my school. 

As an agriculture teacher, I was able to offer students the same opportunities that positively shaped my high school life. We visited the Chesapeake Bay, saw Taylor Swift in concert at the National FFA Convention, ate cream puffs as big as our heads at the Eastern States Exposition in Massachusetts, and helped a local berry farm get ready for winter. In the classroom, we learned to sharpen lawnmower blades, clean and rebuild carburetors, welded a VA LoveWorks sign for a flower farm, and laughed together – a lot. 

While my students and I saw the value in the curriculum and the sense of belonging that CTE classes create, that wasn’t always the case for the rest of the school community. All too often in the public school system, students are tracked. We begin grouping students at an early age based on reading ability. As they progress through school, honors and advanced classes are added to the tracking recipe. Once students reach high school, there are usually two distinct tracks: college-bound or work-bound. Administrators, teachers, and staff often expect rural students not to attend college but instead to go to work after high school. CTE courses are frequently viewed as less challenging and less critical for student growth than traditional “academic” courses. A school’s master schedule usually isn’t built to allow the two tracks to intersect much.

For this reason, we frequently enroll rural students in CTE courses because they “like to work with their hands,” or “need life skills.” While both are valid reasons to take a CTE class, adults sometimes make scheduling decisions based on their perceptions of rural students’ capabilities. These are often false assumptions based on misconceptions that overlook the richness and depth of rural communities and students. While it is heartbreaking that students are tracked because of the assumptions adults make about their future, it is even more disheartening that these students are also denied opportunities to explore other interests or to consider attending a university, community college, or completing a post-secondary certification program. This is certainly not to say that choosing to become a welder or a plumber is not a valuable and admirable life path, but rather to reinforce that students should be able to explore all the options and make those decisions for themselves. 

One of the greatest privileges of teaching agriculture was watching students realize they were capable of more than they’d been told. I saw students who had been written off as “work-bound” earn industry certifications, compete at the state level in FFA events, and use their small engine skills to repair their grandmother’s mower. I also watched advanced placement students realize that learning to weld or repair small engines didn’t make them less “college-bound” but rather helped them see science in action and be more prepared for life. 

My career as a classroom teacher showed me that talent and potential never fall neatly along work or college tracks. When preconceived expectations and scheduling kept students from accessing both traditional academics and hands-on learning, it was not because they lacked ability. It was because the system lacked imagination. CTE programs have the potential to break down barriers. They aren’t the “other” option for kids who “aren’t academic.” CTE programs are rigorous, skill-based programs that open pathways to technical careers, community college, four-year universities, and trades that are vital to our country. CTE changed the trajectory of my life. For many students – rural or otherwise – it can be the key that unlocks a future they never knew possible. 

Candace Carrier is a graduate teaching assistant in the Career and Technical Education Department at Virginia Tech. Prior to returning to Virginia Tech for doctoral studies, Candace taught high school agriculture for 21 years in rural and rural-serving schools in Virginia. Candace also works as an adjunct welding instructor at New River Community College and Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on gender equity in agricultural mechanics and the needs of rural career and technical educators.