Randolph Technical Career Center

Welcome to the Randolph Technical Career Center! We're glad you're here.

Don't forget to visit our News & Updates page for more happenings at RTCC

Ever Wonder What Digital Film Students Do?

Well...when they're not winning the Gold Medal at Skills USA, they're producing some very cool films...like this one (for which they won a Gold Medal at Skills USA!)  Watch the video here.

In the mood to watch videos?  Then you have to see this short film showing our Building Trades tudents finishing up their furniture projects. We call this real learning, from real craftspeople, with real results. Watch the video here.

ERM's Gabe Howe Takes 5th in Game of Logging

Students in RTCC’s Environmental Resource Management (ERM) program participated in the Game of Logging tree-felling competition hosted by Northeast Woodland Training at the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center in Bennington this May.

Students from tech centers across the state to compete in this event, with only the top ten going on to the final round - tree felling. Students are then judged on their felling plan, safety, accuracy, and timeliness.

ERM student Gabe Howe placed 6th overall, landing into the final bracket. After felling his tree, he finished in 5th place. Congratulations Gabe!

Randolph Tech Students Win Big at State Competition
Courtesy of The Herald, April 12, 2018
By Zoë Newmarco

Randolph Technical Career Center students brought home three gold medals and thousands of dollars in scholarships from the annual Vermont SkillsUSA competition in Burlington this spring.

SkillsUSA is a student organization that “empowers its members to become world-class workers,” according to the group’s mission statement. RTCC has been sending students to the state competition for several years and they have fared very well. This year, RTCC students entered four divisions, and won first place in three. Each division consisted of approximately ten of the top technical students in the state. Students who received first place were invited to compete in the national SkillsUSA competition which will take place at a military base in Louisville, Kentucky in June.

This year, RTCC’s diesel technology instructor Chuck Lyman took three students to compete, and they won all three top spots in the diesel equipment technology division. Senior Colby Washburn participated in the competition for the second time this year and took first place. “I wanted to do better this year,” said Washburn, who placed sixth last year, “but I didn’t [expect to] do this well!”

Digital Cinema

Seniors Jessica Pollander and Jordan Horne took first place in the digital cinema production division. As a team of two, they competed against several other teams, including their classmates Ben Richards and Jackson Cook. The teams had already prepared a completed screenplay and actors (RTCC students Abigail Dufresne, Mathew Paquette, and Seth Hurley), but filming had to wait until they were on site.

“Jessica and I had a couple of last-minute twists,” Horne explained. “We found out the day before the competition that one of our [classmates] who was supposed to act for us couldn’t make it, so we had to rewrite her part.”

Horne explained that their film followed the story of a serial killer who falls in love. “We wanted something to stray her off the path of being a serial killer,” she said, “but as the story developed, we decided her love interest should be a serial killer, too.”

“We were really lucky,” added Pollander, “because the prompt they assigned us [at the competition] was the genre ‘thriller,’ so it worked perfectly with what we had planned.” As Pollander and Horne prepare for the national competition, digital film instructor Carlos Diaz said he’ll be helping them to focus on storytelling.

Building Trades

Senior Kolby Carpenter, from Tim Murphy’s building trades class, placed first in the cabinet-making division.
“We didn’t really do much preparation in class,” said Carpenter, “so I didn’t expect to do so well.”

“Cabinetmaking is a particularly stressful part of the competition,” said Murphy “Every student sits at the same table so you can see who is doing what. But Kolby just stuck to his plan—and it really paid off.”

Also from Murphy’s class, juniors Jeremy Hable and Jeremiah Jacobs, and senior Tyler Richards competed in the carpentry division. “It was really intense,” said Richards, “we were each in a pretty small classroom with three other people, and we had to build what was basically a really nice doghouse in about three hours.”
Murphy commended his students’ performance, but wasn’t surprised.

“I’m really impressed with all of the students,” he said. “I [take students] to the competition [so they can]
get out of their comfort zone and see that they have a place with the best in the state.”

RTCC Business Management Students Win at DECA Competition; Take Third in Vermont Treasury Cup Challenge

Two RTCC Business Management students, Sheyenne Miller and Mariah Vilbrin, finished first and second overall in the personal financial literacy competition at the Vermont DECA Career Development Conference held on February 9th at the University of Vermont.

DECA is an international organization with 219,000 members from 3,500 high schools around the world that prepares students for leadership positions in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. At the Vermont conference, Miller and Vilbrin finished in the top two spots by beating out 100 other students from high schools located throughout the state. By finishing in first place, Miller won a $1,500 scholarship to the Arts Institute. Furthermore, Miller and Vilbrin could potentially earn spots to represent Vermont at DECA's International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia later in the year.

This is not the first year Miller and Vilbrin won awards at the Vermont DECA Conference. Last year, Miller won overall second place and Vilbrin placed third in a role play scenario in the Business Management and Administration Principles category. This year, RTCC was also represented at the conference by first time participants Alexia Covey and Morgan Nelson.

RTCC Business Program Takes Third in Vermont Treasury Cup Challenge

The State Treasurer's Office held its annual Treasury Cup Challenge tournament in Montpelier this spring to promote student interest in, and knowledge of, personal finance, economics, and consumer affairs topics.
This was the tenth year for the statewide tournament, and eight schools from across the state competed for the Championship. This year's winning teams came from Mount Mansfield Union High School, Essex High School, and the Randolph Technical Career Center.

What Content Does the Challenge Cover? 

At the start of the competition, teams are placed in competition brackets. It is a double elimination tournament. The majority of the questions are in multiple choice format. Each preliminary competition is organized as follows:

• ROUND 1: Personal Finance--each team gets four questions in round robin format; correct answers worth 5 pts. each
• ROUND 2: Economics--each team gets four questions in round robin format; correct answers worth 5 pts. each
• ROUND 3: Lightning Round--open-ended topics that teams compete directly against each other in a timed format.

Subsequent matches are modified slightly from the preliminary rounds in that individual questions are replaced with team questions. There is a lightning round, which eventually determines the winner.

"The Treasury Cup competition put on by the Vermont State Treasurer's Office is one of the purest learning opportunities available,” said U32 Business Teacher George Cook. “In addition to putting the content area to use, the students thrive both individually and collaboratively. [It’s a] tremendously healthy day of learning.”  

New Dual Enrollment Course Will Teach Financial Literacy

RTCC’s Business Management Program will offer personal finance course to RTCC and RU students beginning Spring 2018 for college credit.

Vermont Technical College has approved a dual enrollment personal finance course that will be offered at Randolph Technical Career Center beginning in the spring of 2018.

Business Management program instructor Wayne Goulet will use resources from Next Gen Personal Finance (NGFP) for his instruction. The goal of the course is to give students the tools they need to take charge of their personal finances and remove some of the mystery from the personal financial planning process.
“Understanding personal financial planning provides major benefits that can help marshal and control financial resources more effectively, facilitating an improved standard of living,” noted Goulet. “I'm very excited to offer a much needed Personal Finance course to not only my students at Randolph Technical Career Center (RTCC) but also to the students at adjoining Randolph Union High School through Vermont Tech.”

The course will cover financial statements and budgets; managing basic assets; credit; insurance needs; investments; and planning for retirement.

Upon learning of the new dual enrollment agreement, Tim Ranzetta, founder of NGPF, said: “We are ecstatic to hear that our resources will support Mr. Goulet’s course while providing Vermont students with college credit. It’s great to see more young people having access to high-quality financial education and practical knowledge so they can thrive. That’s our mission and it’s why we are thrilled to have another educator connect with our free resources.”

Meet our Director, Jason Gingold.

Sure, he's proud of our new sign, but he's even more proud of our programs...read all about them - and us - by visiting some of our pages!

We're glad you're taking a few minutes to check out web site. We hope you'll like what you see, and that you'll schedule a time to come visit, or maybe even shadow us for a day.

Our students love what they do -- and are doing what they love -- all while preparing for careers in their chosen field; for college; or for service in the US military.

If you're ready to wake up in the morning and love coming to school, you owe it to yourself to learn more about RTCC. We look forward to seeing you soon.