The Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center (ESC) and Buckeye Hills Career Center (BHCC) proudly hosted their annual Career Palooza and Arts, Music, and Theatre Camp on June 2-5, 2025. This exciting four-day event provided sixth and seventh graders from Gallia, Jackson, and Vinton counties with a unique opportunity to explore various career paths and artistic disciplines through hands-on experiences.
The Career Palooza engaged seventh graders with interactive activities in twelve diverse fields, such as carpentry, criminal justice, information technology, and healthcare. Students had the chance to build birdhouses to learn about carpentry, navigate an obstacle course while wearing alcohol and drug simulation goggles as part of the criminal justice experience, grasp coding basics in information technology, and witness a surgery demonstration after donning personal protective equipment in the healthcare segment.
In addition to these activities, the event highlighted manufacturing, cosmetology, culinary arts, welding, agriculture, science, heavy equipment technology, and more. Students also received essential training in money management and learned about job placement opportunities, equipping them with important information for their future endeavors.
Instructors from Buckeye Hills Career Center led the career presentations in the technical labs at BHCC, designed to replicate industry-standard environments and provide students with real-world experience.
Participating BHCC instructors included Tim Howard, Laura Roth, Kim Dawkins, Frank Yablonsky, Paul Combs, Rebecca Polinsky, Michael Clark, Pam Updike, Matt Crabtree, Adam Rippeth, Justy Burleson, as well as Mark Carlisle from the Gallia-Vinton ESC.
Complementing the Career Palooza, the Art, Music, and Theatre Camp provided sixth graders the opportunity to explore their artistic talents, fostering a well-rounded educational experience.
This year’s Art, Music, and Theatre Camp encompassed three disciplines: visual arts, music, and theater.
During the music portion led by Kindra Ward and Bob Bence, students constructed their own dulcimer, learned to read music notes and even play the instrument – which they were able to take home at the end of camp. Students also learned to play the ukulele under the guidance of Ashlyn Denney and were able to choose a ukelele to keep.
In the art portion, students created works of art, including clay sculptures, object sketches from various perspectives, shading techniques, and scenes using watercolors and pastels, led by Angie Petrie and Jacob Lemley.
The newest addition to the camp is theater, where students were instructed by the Alchemy Theatre troupe, Nora Ankrom and Mike Murdock. Students worked on both performance and technical theatre, focusing on acting, voice projection, costuming, and character portrayal in a play. In technical theater, students explored set design, lighting, and scene timing. Each day concluded with live performances by different bands and the Alchemy Troupe.
To wrap up this enriching week, students from both camps were treated to a celebratory trip to Kings Island by charter bus, adding a fun and memorable conclusion to the week. Students participating in the Arts Camp even had the opportunity to watch stage performances and a special behind-the-scenes look at costuming, makeup, stage setup, and technical elements.
Dr. Denise Shockley, Gallia-Vinton ESC Superintendent, said “We have a long-standing relationship with Buckeye Hills Career Center to conduct camps for middle school students each summer. The focused time on learning about careers and exploring art/music/theatre interests is extremely valuable to students.”