Imagine a program at school where students could not only learn the content more in depth but have access to high school and college credits, high paying jobs, job shadow opportunities both paid and unpaid and college visits all relating to their interests. Not many students know about the CareerLine Tech Center, an opportunity that offers all this and more. 

The Tech Center is an elective opportunity for juniors and seniors to take a more specialized class for a number of jobs that aren’t taught in normal high schools. Jobs such as construction, plumbing, graphic design, auto tech and body, culinary arts, health classes such as CNA (certified nurse assistant) and PCT (patient care technician), and a lot more are all offered there. Students can talk to their counselors and fill out an application for the program of their choice. They will then either be accepted or wait-listed depending on how much available space there is in the program. Not only are there students from the same high school they come from, there are also students from all over the county allowing for friendships outside of just their sending district. “It is helping me form new relationships and find out if teaching is the field for me,” says AnnaLeah DeWaard, a student in the teachers’ academy program at Tech Center.

There are many benefits of going to CTC according to Kris Doenges, director at the Careerline Tech Center. On top of the longer class times, two hours in the morning and three in the afternoon, students get a hands-on learning experience in careers they are interested in. All programs also offer a work-based learning opportunity where students can job shadow, work for a business for two days a week, potentially even get paid, or actually work for a business four to five days a week. The programs offer senior-math-related credit, some offer science and others offer VPA credit too. They also offer direct or articulated college credits as well, depending on the program students could earn up to ten college credits for free all while still in high school. Most programs will even take students on a field trip to a college that offers a degree similar to what they are studying such as graphic design and Kendall Art College. 

In addition to all of the school and work-related benefits, all teachers at the CTC are experts in their content and have paraprofessionals who help support students academically but also emotionally. There are three counselors who spend significant amounts of time discussing post-secondary options, completing FASA reports, writing scholarship essays and so much more. The CTC also has two special ed consultants who help all students find academic success.