Education professionals from San Diego took part in the Educator Orientation Visit (EOV), touring Training Service Center (TSC) Great Lakes and learning sites (LSs), June 14.

The purpose of the visit was to demonstrate the training used at TSC and LSs that provided 24-hour supervision, leadership, training and professional development of accession Sailors prior to their arrival to the fleet.

The visit also provided educators and school administrators a firsthand look at Navy life to better inform them about the opportunities a career in the Navy has for their students.

"Our main goal is to provide Navy awareness to the educators' communities that are located within our recruiting district to help them understand the benefits of students exploring careers in the Navy, or any armed service branch," said Erin Abram, education specialist for Navy Recruiting District San Diego. "It opens their eyes to what is available in career and education paths. This tour, we visited Training Support Center, the learning sites and Recruit Training Command. The educators were able to see where their students will be going immediately after high school graduation. For that reason, I feel that this is one of the best tours out of all the tours available."

The first stop on the tour was at TSC's student indoctrination, life skills training. Upon graduation boot camp, Sailors attend a 4-day class that educates students about sexual assault intervention, military pay and entitlements, healthy relationships, navigating stress, operations security, banking and financial management services, and responsible alcohol use.

At Surface Warfare Officers School Unit (SWOSU) Great Lakes, staff led a tour of the training facilities of Basic Engineering Common Core (BECC).

"This visit is a superb opportunity to partner with our civilian teachers from San Diego, California," said Cmdr. Terrance Patterson, commanding officer of SWOSU Great Lakes. "I thoroughly enjoy showcasing our staff's professionalism and SWOs use of new technology and training curriculum to train our new accession, journey and master-level Sailors. It also gives us the opportunity to let our community educators know about the unique technical training opportunities that are readily available in the U.S. Navy, so they can take that back to their students."

BECC is a 13-day course where students learn engineering principles and theory. It balances computer-based training (CBT) with hands-on training labs, instructor-led classroom training. They also visited the Purifier Lab, LPD 17 Maintainer Course, and Engineman Apprentice School.

Their tour began Center for Surface Combat Systems Unit (CSCSU), the EOV group toured gunner's mate "A" school's Fire Arms Training Simulator and the T1 RADAR partial task trainer.

The final leg of their tour of TSC and LS was at the Galley's Windy City Cafe where they enjoyed lunch with the Coalition of Sailors Against Destructive Decisions (CSADD). CSADD put junior Sailors in a position to stop their shipmates from making decisions that will have negative impacts on their life and their Navy career. The program is geared toward Sailors E-5 and below, ages 18-25. They promote positive choices and develop leadership through organizing local social networks, facilitating discussion, producing visual messages, promoting community involvement and hosting recreational events.

Patricia Cruz, English and math teacher at Sweet Water High School in National City, loved getting an eye opening view of what new Sailors will experience after boot camp and at their "A" schools.

"It was very educational to see the type of training 'A' school students go through to learn their trade," she said. "The staff curriculum and training that they use utilizing educational techniques along with technology is very similar to the education students receive in college."

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