Elmira Life and Work Skills
STUDENT LIFE
Students
The ELAWS students have a rich school life, with a balance of learning, homework, socializing and work. Each student works in a co-op position for part of the week, and at school they combine classroom efforts with enjoying friends between classes, playing volleyball in the gym at noon, and growing through our special integration days, where the community gathers in larger groups to do community service and learn employability skills that serve them on the job.
Tech Design
Our Tech design course makes use of drawing software to create residential designs of houses and floor plans. The goal is primarily to encourage familiarity with architectural software, but also to offer a creative outlet for design.
Family Studies
In our Family Studies courses, the students are exposed to the ideas and skills that will make them able to manage some of the practical concerns of family life. They will be exposed to some of the ideas and practices involved in home décor – both sewing and design – and they will get comfortable in a kitchen, learning safety, healthy eating and nutrition.
Manufacturing Technology
The ELAWS programme has access to the shops of EDSS, and over the course of four years the students can be exposed to many kinds of manufacturing equipment. They will encounter welders, lathes, presses, saws and numerous other machines, including CNC equipment, with the goal of helping students understand how to use them safely, and discover which technologies are of interest to them.
Hospitality & Tourism
In this geography course, students will become familiar with the largest business in the world – tourism. They will be exposed to the cultures of other countries, and they will sample some of the foods of those cultures as well. They will hear the experiences of staff members who have traveled to other corners of the globe.
Physical Education
Besides being introduced to a variety of sports, the Phys. Ed. program affords the students with opportunities to practice leadership skills in organizing and refereeing tournaments. The course is intended to encourage fitness for life, an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Construction Technology
Many of our students express interest in working with wood, and our Construction Technology courses give them the opportunity to experience wood construction first-hand. The focus for juniors is on cabinet-making skills using woodworking tools and machines. For our seniors the focus shifts to house construction techniques and includes framing, dry-walling, and many other skills.
Digital Arts
We live in a world in which computers are being used more and more widely, and our students in Digital Arts are exposed to one of the significant areas of computerization – graphic design. They learn how to use image manipulation in order to produce attractive brochures and other documents that could be used in advertising a business or organization.
