DAEDF resumes tours with Duncan teachers

October 20, 2022

The Duncan Banner

Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation partnered with area businesses to bring its “Teacher Tours” back after several years. Teachers from Duncan High School and Duncan Middle School split up into six groups to tour six business industries.

DAEDF resumes tours with Duncan teachers

By Tamara Gregor

The Duncan Banner

Educators in the Duncan district caught a glimpse of the business industry during a scheduled tour on Tuesday.

Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation partnered with area businesses to bring back its “Teacher Tours” after several years. In each round of visits, teachers engaged with business professionals to talk about educational opportunities for students.

DAEDF Operations Manager Nicole Punneo said that throughout the day, three groups toured the north industrial park: Solitaire, PGM Processing and Sensia. Another three groups toured the south industrial park: Family Dollar, Duncan Regional Hospital and First Bank & Trust.

After the tours wrapped up, Halliburton sponsored a lunch break for the teachers, followed by a question- and-answer panel and concluding with a tour of Halliburton.

According to Punneo, the goal of the day was to show teachers different industries available in the community, so they can take back what they learned to their students.

“They are teaching our future workforce,” she said.

Punneo said she has seen several looks of amazement after teachers find out what these local businesses can offer high school and college graduates.

“As people drive by these companies, you just see a building on the outside,” she said. “You don’t see all of the cool things that are going on inside.”

Places such as Solitaire build one to two houses a day, according to Punneo.

“PGM, they are one the only companies in the United States that does the process they do and it’s here in Duncan, Oklahoma,” she said.

According to Punneo, some students will graduate and go off to college, and they hope those students will return to Duncan and use their degrees in the community.

For those who many not want to attend college, the tours have revealed alternative ways to jumpstart a career.

One of the areas toured was DRH’s Learning Center, laboratory and health information.

Teachers heard from Director of Education LaNell Taylor about the OU College of Nursing and its hands-on simulation classes, as well as Laboratory Quality Supervisor Brittany Wade, Director of Health Information Management and Privacy Officer Nancy Lott and Janet Adkins with financial services.

Taylor explained the simulation classes with life-like mannequins and how students can be handson in the classroom. Wade shared the processes the lab goes through in receiving samples. Adkins detailed how the health information area uses problem-solving skills and is extremely detail- oriented, requiring great communication skills.

Business professionals talked with educators about educational opportunities for aspiring students, including scholarships.

Justin Pena, with Duncan Middle School, said he enjoyed the opportunity to tour DRH and hear about the things they can do with the life-like mannequins, blood draws and live birth simulations.

“The education simulation was pretty ‘wow,” he said. “They had the life-like (mannequins) and how they work on those before they get into the hospital and work on actual people — I thought it was pretty cool.”

Lesa Hefner, Health Careers adviser, said she appreciates the partnership with the local businesses and Duncan Public Schools.

“DRH Health was excited to partner with DAEDF for the DPS High School and Middle School Teacher Tours,” Hefner said. “We appreciate our teachers and realize they are on the front lines of workforce development and career advisement.”

At Sensia, teachers toured the facilities from Operations Manager Eric McGhghy, who walked the teachers through the assembly process from electrical to mechanical.

During a question-and-answer segment, teachers learned how employees at Sensia are community- focused, and they shared about future career engagement opportunities for graduates.

DAEDF President Lyle Roggow said its been six years since they’ve done these tours and he appreciates the opportunity to engage with the education and business community.

“Every single teacher is a career guidance counselor and they touch the lives of those students, so it’s really key that they’re engaged in this process and it makes learning relevant,” he said.

Duncan High School Principal Lisha Elroy was part of the group who toured Solitaire, PGM and Sensia. She said they heard about wages, different education requirements, and many different interests they can take back.

“It’s been a good morning and eye-opening for most of us,” she said. “Just to get to tour the shops and go in and see the things that they do, its just makes us more equipped to help our students know what’s available here.”

DPS Superintendent Dr. Channa Byerly believes the tours on Tuesday were a huge success.

“(We want to) make sure everyone knows we’re still on that same page, because we are working together for this community and it just goes hand-in-hand,” she said.

Byerly said she was thrilled to work with DAEDF to orchestrate the tours again.

“We have the best community,” she said. “Today was such as success and I’m so happy to be apart of it.”

Byerly said she hopes the teachers take away a plethora of different opportunities and possibilities for students who choose the college path or go straight into the workforce.

According to Byerly, there were many relevant opportunities with each business, especially using math and science in the workforce, as well as in the classroom.

“I hope it will open the conversation up between all of our teachers,” she said.