When Brittney Clark, a librarian at Orestimba High, attended an AFL-CIO Convention at Philadelphia Convention Center in June 2022, she thought that she was only going to connect with other union organizers. But that was far from what happened.
As she sat in a conference room with more than 2,000 attendees, an individual walked inside in front of the audience, Chris Gardner. Gardner, a businessman who’s betrayed in the biopic, “Pursuit of Happyness,” spoke about his career as a stockbroker and encouraged high school graduates to enter an apprenticeship program.
As Clark flew back to California, she felt there wasn’t an initiative “to encourage kids to kind of look into other career options that might not come with college debt.” This led her to approach then-Principal Justin Pruett about offering and encouraging trade skills career paths such as agriculture, emergency services and welding through a career fair. Pruett supported the idea and approved it…