CORVALLIS, Ore. — While working as a high school teacher for 20 years in Eastern Oregon, Didgette McCracken noticed how many students felt lost after graduation.
Writing a resume, applying to college or finding housing often felt overwhelming. So she began helping students map out their next steps, whether that meant work, military service, community college or university.
This passion for youth career readiness that stems from teaching has now become McCracken’s job. A year ago, she was hired as the first youth CTE, trades and workforce development specialist for Oregon State University Extension Service.
Career and technical education, or CTE, focuses on helping students gain practical skills for careers and trades. McCracken’s role connects Extension’s youth programs with statewide job training and workforce resources.
“If you’re not quite ready for a particular workforce, we’re going to prepare you for it,” McCracken said. “And you know what that job looks like, to make those leaps, to get into the workforce sooner than later.”
“I learn the licensure process and what the workforce looks like in that industry and translate it into language and programming that makes sense for youths and the education system.”
Oregon’s focus on career readiness grew after lawmakers passed Senate Bill 3 in 2023, which added financial literacy and career planning to high school graduation requirements, starting with the class of 2027.
In response, the Oregon Department of Education and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission partnered with regional districts to develop career-readiness tools. As a member of HECC's Oregon Youth Works Advisory Board, McCracken helps connect students and educators with statewide career and trade resources through Extension programs.
McCracken’s position is co-sponsored by all Extension youth programs — 4-H, Outdoor School, Open Campus and Juntos — to contribute to youth workforce development in all of Oregon’s 36 counties.
A job that needs to know all the jobs
McCracken grew up in Vale, a small town in Malheur County, and attended Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. After her teaching career, she became an Open Campus coordinator in Grant County in 2018, focusing on college and career readiness for high schoolers and adults, as well as on economic development in the county.
When the new CTE specialist position was created, McCracken said she felt it fit most of the things she had been doing at the county level and applied.
“Didgette just had so much knowledge and expertise and connections in CTE from supporting students locally when she was an Open Campus coordinator,” said Emily Henry, who directs the Open Campus program. “She was the perfect fit for this position and has hit the ground running.”
McCracken’s days are filled with meetings, research and partnership-building: from talking with industry professionals to writing grant proposals to learning certification requirements across different trades, which she said is the fun part of her job.
“I think of myself as pulling all those strands together and trying to connect the right people to speak to each other,” she said. “Making sure these career opportunities are known to students and then the adults that are working with the students.”
McCracken works to bridge the gap between students and employers. For example, a 4-H’er who loves working with animals can learn from their 4-H program coordinators what it takes to become a veterinary assistant or veterinarian and then gain experience through clinic job shadowing.
Henry said Open Campus coordinators had long helped students plan their next steps after high school, but limited time and resources made it difficult to turn new ideas into programs. McCracken’s role can help fill gaps in building partnerships and securing grant funding to make new programming happen.
Since McCracken has been on board, she has been learning from successful opportunities in other states with youth CTE specialists and designing programs unique to Oregon’s workforce landscape.
In August 2025, youth-serving programs in OSU Extension collaborated to launch the first Youth Outdoor Career and Leadership Summit, which helps Oregon high school students explore careers in the outdoor and environmental industries.
“It’s really about planting those seeds about job awareness and planting them younger and younger,” McCracken said. “Because oftentimes youths know the regular careers like teacher, doctor, lawyer, whatever their parents do, but they don’t see all the other working pieces and other opportunities.”
New initiatives
This year, in response to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s call to retain and recruit behavioral health providers in high-need communities across Oregon, McCracken is developing a pre-apprenticeship program that allows high school students to learn what a career in mental health looks like. This will be the first-of-its-kind program in Eastern Oregon.
She said many students don’t know that a four-year degree isn't the only path to becoming a certified counselor. It’s essential to communicate what the industry is looking for in employees so students can better prepare with the right, up-to-date knowledge about the workforce market.
“I’m not an expert in mental health, but I’m the convener,” she said. “I learn the licensure process and what the workforce looks like in that industry and translate it into language and programming that makes sense for youths and the education system.”
Her goal is to keep organizing more trade day events for students in rural Eastern Oregon, who often have limited exposure to trade careers that don’t have the traditional college path.
In 2025, she collaborated with partners to create the first Trades Talk and Career Walk in Union County that brought together 150 students and 22 industry presenters from Union and Wallowa counties. Students can learn directly from professionals in a wide range of trades and technical fields, such as transportation, heavy equipment operations, carpentry and electrical work.
This year, she’s expanding that effort to Malheur County and Gilliam County, and an aviation career day in Grant County and Harney County.
To make workforce development knowledge more accessible, she compiled a comprehensive web resource that has statewide resources for students and educators, including every county in Oregon.
As March — College and Career Awareness Month — approaches, McCracken hopes more students and educators will use the website and recognize the workforce development work already happening in their communities.
McCracken’s efforts in youth workforce development are part of the long-term strategic planning for the Open Campus and Juntos programming.
“We hope to better support students on their post-secondary pathways,” she said. “Making sure they are informed with the best resources, know about the job opportunities out there and create actual programs that are able to get students credentials to get into different fields.”
Visit the Open Campus website to learn more about OSU Extension’s Youth CTE, Trades, and Workforce Development Initiative.
