Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, and to continue on May 1, 2024, New Mexico Workforce Solutions, with help from their sponsors and local help from Freeport McMoran, brought a semi-truck trailer to Silver High School.

Shane Stephens, Silver School project coordinator for the Innovation Zone grant, said the truck full of simulators, some of which cost more than $100,000, was being used by groups of 30 students at a time to let the students explore the potential of different careers.

"This is the fourth group today, and we expect at least three more this afternoon, and tomorrow they will be coming from La Plata Middle School and Cliff Schools," Stephens said. "So about 400 to 500 students will visit to look at all the different opportunities."

The simulators, including two that let students maneuver a large Caterpillar excavator, with joysticks and a screen, to dig a hole and transfer the material from the hole to the back of a load truck. 

Other simulators helped students learn how to build robotics, how to become a lineman or a welder or how to work on a construction site. Another option addressed health care opportunities. 

For more information or to learn of additional opportunities, students were invited to visit join.nm.beprobeproud.org

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