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In the health wing of newly modernized Benson Polytechnic High School, senior Ruby Mullins offered passersby an opportunity to get their blood glucose read, drawing blood samples from strangers and feeding them through a meter.
At Benson’s 102nd Tech Show on Thursday and Friday nights, hundreds of students like Mullins showed off the technical skills they’ve mastered through posterboard, project displays and live demonstrations. Benson students are participants in a reimagined high school education: career technical education, which is becoming increasingly popular as college grows less affordable.
Portland Public Schools, like districts around the nation, is emphasizing the value of that option. Mastering a career technical path is now an indicator of success after high school for the district, and an increasingly popular option for the district’s students. About 29% of students who demonstrated postsecondary readiness in the Class of 2024 did so through CTE, compared to 23.9% in 2021.
Mullins says she chose to pursue nursing at Benson because she’s been a caretaker for her mom. In her time at the school, she’s picked up a host of skills, even partaking in clinicals at Providence as part of a partnership.
Most high schoolers have the opportunity to participate in sports or music. Mullins has held newborn babies and helped run their tests.
“Nursing has given me a great way to learn a bunch of skills that I wouldn’t have known until years later,” she says. “And I feel like my confidence has grown as an advocate for [my mom], and being able to advocate for myself as well.”
This year’s Tech Show also drew crowds of Benson alumni—some from more than 50 years ago—who flocked to explore the newly modernized school. Benson opened this fall after a three-year modernization project, one that faced major cost overruns (budgeted for $212 million, costs ballooned to $416 million). Benson is the most expensive high school to date in Oregon, though the district is currently floating higher budgets for the three remaining high schools it says it will modernize.
Rob Johns, a longtime Benson advocate and 1977 graduate, fought long and hard for the school’s modernization. In a time when PPS is struggling with enrollment, he says kids are flocking to Benson to amass unique skills they’ll keep through their lifetimes. (Benson currently enrolls 896 students, a number influenced by an enrollment cap Johns has been pushing the district to lift. In March, a PPS spokeswoman said the district expects to raise the cap in the coming year.)
Benson’s unique programming, Johns says, allows students to sample eight different pathways before landing on a major and further specializations during junior and senior year. Therein lies the school’s special power, he says.
“You don’t have to go to college,” Johns says. “[We say] ‘Have people find their pathways.’ But if they aren’t given a door to open, how do you expect them to figure that out?”
Ricky Booker Jr. is in his first year as an electrical instructor at Benson. A 2005 Benson alumnus, Booker says he knew college wasn’t for him and took an apprenticeship after his time at Benson. Electric work, he says, combines his love for math with his physical work.
“We’re heading into a time where a lot of things are going to be automated. If jobs dry up, you’re going to need industry and need people that want to work with their hands,” Booker says. “I look at AI and I’m like, someone’s still got to give it power. So I feel good.”
Natalia Matos, one of Booker’s star students, says she didn’t intend to major in electric when she first came to Benson, but now is planning to pursue it as a full-time career. “I definitely chose it as my career after my experience in my electric class,” Matos says. “I realized I really enjoy the work and I find it super easy to grasp.”
In a senior showroom for projects, Matos and her friend put together a chair that creates a slight tingling sensation for the sitter. She says she had a good time listening to the reactions it elicited from participants.
Matos wasn’t the only one showing off a build. Jordan Ryan, a construction major, set up their project display in a CTE courtyard. Unlike Matos, Ryan’s not set on pursuing their trade as a full-time job. “I decided [to choose] what would be most helpful for my life if I didn’t do anything with my major,” they say. Now, leaving high school, they can build everything from cutting boards, to drawers. Their senior project is an in-progress foosball table.
For these seniors, their freshman year was hosted at the Marshall High School campus, where they attended class as Benson underwent renovations. Concluding high school in the new facility has been “beautiful,” Mullins says.
“In nursing, in the health program as a whole, we’ve had a lot of new advancements and new technology that we’ve been able to use,” she says. “It’s going to give future generations of Benson students a great opportunity.”