'They’ve taken it to the next level': Houston students participate in the Great Gingerbread Build-Off

Within the halls of Houston High School on Wednesday, students, faculty, and guests may have been overwhelmed by the scent of gingerbread and wowed by the designs on display Wednesday, but it wasn’t merely in preparation of the upcoming holidays.

Students from various Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways at Houston High are participating in a new scholarship program in coordination with the Mat-Su Homebuilders Association (MSHBA) non-profit division in which students from the Culinary Arts, Construction and Design, and worked together to create, design, and construct an original building made out of gingerbread. There are a total of 16 projects that were submitted.

“Mat-Su Homebuilders is providing a scholarship, and the students are just super excited about it, and have been working on them for weeks,” said Heather Fortune, the Culinary Arts teacher for Houston. Fortune says that while MSHBA approached all the schools in the Valley with CTE programs, Houston was the only school to take advantage.

“We were a perfect fit for this. We are a small school, and we have a lot of overlap between our Interior Design, Construction, and Culinary programs. We’ve got kids that have done a semester of each, or a semester here and there. They started out in Interior Design and 3-D printing and they started designing. From there, the students created templates while the Culinary students started making gingerbread and planning how to roll it out and get it to scale.”

While some students’ dreamt big on their creations, as part of the process, they learned that there is also a time when adapting and changing course was also needed, as Ms. Fortune showed one design that had broken down five different times

This is the first year for the scholarship competition, and as Dave Miller of Summit Homes, and President of the Board of Director for MSHBA says, he’s been building homes for 30 years, and as they were discussing gingerbread houses last year, inspiration hit and morphed into the competition they decided to sponsor.

“To the credit of the school and Mrs. Fortune, she came up with the idea to actually have the students develop a schematic and took it to the next level, and I am just super excited to see that,” says Miller.

“What we’re trying to do is promote workforce development ideas and get students excited about the trades, because there is a shortage of people working, so if we can get people excited, then that’s just awesome!”

“We didn’t want to miss an opportunity like this.”

Aside from the amazing designs, the faculty and staff are most proud of the way in which the multiple CTE classes worked together to complete their projects.

“This project was really awesome because it was a cross-curricula project for CTE, and that is what really excited me about this,” said Principal Chad Martin. “Pulling in CAD (Construction and Design) and having the Culinary produce this, it is the vision we have for CTE program, to link all these programs together.”

It is an idea enthusiastically shared by the assistant principal, too.

“I think when you get multiple CTE classes working together to create something, you get some really great work,” said assistant principal Brandt Brown.

“I loved the integration, when I got to watch them designing, it was really fun to see that, and then as they created patterns and the kids take off and run with it, it’s really fun.”

Principal Martin was excited to see what his students were able to design and create, although he was a little worried earlier in the week.

“Just yesterday, I came by and I was worried that some of the students weren’t going to finish in time, and now, to check out what they’ve done is great.”

And what were the first impressions of the members of the MSHA?

“They exceeded our expectations,” said Sarah Lazzarotto, Executive Director for MSHBA.

“We couldn’t be happier. They’ve taken it to the next level. It’s awesome,” gushed Miller.

While a final decision has yet to be made, the public has a chance to weigh in on their favorites. Simply visit the Facebook page of the Mat Su Homebuilders (click here Mat Su Homebuilders Facebook page) and click through the entries and LIKE or LOVE react your favorite. The design with the most reactions by December 18 will be named lucky winning team.