Lawrence High School’s Career and Technical Education students put their yearlong projects on display for the community Wednesday night at the fourth annual Innovation Expo.
LHS offers eight CTE pathways for students: Animal, Plant and Environmental Systems; Business and Technology; Design, Production and Repair; Drafting and Engineering; Health Science and Biomedicine; Hospitality and Tourism; Human and Public Services; and Visual Arts and Media.
These classes are designed to give LHS students real experience in a career field that might not entail a four-year college.
“We just want our kids to keep learning,” said Chef Rose Barry, the culinary arts teacher at Lawrence High. “There’s not one path. It doesn’t have to be, you know, a four-year institution … to learn an actual skill that they might actually enjoy, and then they can make a living doing.”
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During the expo, Barry’s students served several items with varying levels of difficulty, from plain brownies and caprese skewers to fruit pizza cookies and spanakopita bites. Each class period had their specified items, and students were making them fresh during the event.
On top of the fresh snacks, guests could watch students paint live.
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In the arts section of the event, senior Ru Yother, was painting on an old X-ray light box that her boyfriend’s mom found.
The piece was part of their project prompt “Zombie self portrait.” Yother, who also sculpts and does ceramics, wanted to paint herself sculpting a zombie version of her.
Yother is currently facing two issues with the piece: one of the lights is broken, and it is pretty heavy.
“I don’t really know how to do any of the actual light board stuff, and then one of the lights is broken, so I’m gonna have to go in there and fix it,” Yother said. “And also moving this thing around.”
Yother said her teacher, Todd Poteet, is the best part of her class and that even when she gets sad about not making money as an artist, he encourages her and all his students to keep going anyway.
Elsewhere at the expo, biomedical science students showed off projects that gave visitors a look at hands-on classroom work.
One group showed a dissected pig heart, and another demonstrated how they create simulated wounds to help them identify what similar injuries might look like in real-word situations.
“Nobody wants to just sit and listen … I mean, we do it because that’s what school looks like, right,” Barry said. “Learning is so much easier when you’re having fun and you don’t even know you’re learning. If you’re just enjoying yourself, learning happens.”
Urijah Cummins, who participates in the animal, plant, and environment courses, brought chickens and kittens that he and his teacher, Rachel Landers, raised to sell to people in the community.
“It’s all because of Ms. Landers. Without her, I wouldn’t have this in my life,” Cummins said.
Zach Saltz, video and animation teacher as well as the CTE department chair, said the expo was modeled after a project night that the College and Career Center used to do, and he hopes that the students will show their growth through the year as well as show their peers what kinds of opportunities exist for them at Lawrence High.
“We hope that this event promotes curiosity, innovation, creativity,” Saltz said. “We hope that students are proud of the work that they’ve done this year.”
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Courtney Lane (she/her), staff reporter, has worked with The Lawrence Times since April 2026. She can be reached at clane@lawrencekstimes.com.
Read her complete bio here. Read her work for the Times at this link, and see her photography for the Times at this link.
Jacob Rice (he/him), photo editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since March 2026. He can be reached at jrice@lawrencekstimes.com.
Read his complete bio here. Check out his photography for the Times here.
