This article is part of Concentrate's Voices of Youth series, which features stories written by Washtenaw County youth with guidance from Concentrate staff mentors, as well as adult-written stories spotlighting local youth perspective. In this installment, student writer Sennen Querijero and Concentrate staff mentor Patrick Dunn look into how local high school students are getting career experience through programs offered by Washtenaw Community College staff.

Today, more and more young people have become interested in exploring and considering potential career pathways while they're still in high school. In Washtenaw County, one way they can pursue these prospects is in career and technical education (CTE) programs available through Washtenaw Community College (WCC). CTE programs allow high school students to pursue their occupational interests through immersive classes offered by the college. Classes aim to teach skills with real-world application in a hands-on way that appeals to young people. Through these programs, students may find low-stakes career experience, future career opportunities, and mentorships.

Career experience in high school

CTE programs help students to experience what their future careers might look like, both inside and outside the classroom. Recent Ypsilanti Community High School graduate SaNaria Collins says she'd become curious about pursuing a health care career after helping to take care of her grandmother and other family members.

"When I found out that they were having a nursing program that you could do while you were in high school, that interested me," she says.

Collins enrolled in a health sciences program, taught by WCC faculty at YCHS, through which YCHS seniors can earn a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) license. Taking classes three hours a week every school day for a semester, students in the program learn health care basics, practice skills on medical manikins, and eventually work with patients in the clinical environment of a nursing home.

"They give a lot of experience to help you and push you off into the health care world," says Jayla Fields, another recent YCHS grad who completed the health sciences program. "I think it's a great opportunity for anyone who's interested in health care because ... it just is really easy to go from there."

Hands-on experience

Not only do WCC CTE programs provide an incredible, enriching experience for students while they're still in high school, but they are also an excellent way to try out a career path firsthand before students start college. Collins says the health sciences program was "a great program if you just want to test it out and see if that's what you actually want to become, because you see a lot of stuff and get a lot of experience."

In CTE programs, students are offered a new, alternative way of learning that is based around work experience. This can be good for those who feel restricted by a typical classroom environment or those who want to try something new. Fields says the real-world learning experience of working in a nursing home was the "best part" of the health sciences program, and the part from which she retained the most information.

"Whether it was with [a manikin], classmates, or patients at the nursing home, I feel like it just gave me a lot more, rather than reading," she says. "It just made me feel more confident in going into the health care field, knowing that I've practiced what I practiced, whether it was changing a diaper, cleaning a tube, feeding somebody, or [giving] bed baths."
Doug CoombeAlijah Braatz is a student in Washtenaw Community College's automotive CTE program.
Alijah Braatz, a current student in WCC's CTE automotive program, also recommends CTE programs as a "new learning experience where you get to try new things." He adds that his program has been a good way to find future career opportunities.

"It opens up job offers," Braatz says.

Mentorships

Although CTE students can connect to potential employers in many different ways, some of the most important career connections come from the mentorships developed through their programs. Students often end up forging valuable long-term connections with their WCC instructors or other professionals they encounter through their programs.

"Many times, if you're finding a mentor as a student, you're finding a mentor that has a line to a career path, especially if it's in the type of education that you're studying," says Kyrsten Rue, assistant dean of career and technical education at WCC.

Fields says she found mentors in her health sciences program, including her teachers and even the staff at the nursing home she worked in.

"I think they're all amazing, and they all offered advice or help," she says.

Collins found an influential mentor in her health sciences professor, Colleen Smyth.

"She was always there for her students, and not just in the nursing world," Collins says. "She was always there making sure everything was okay in personal conversations. I would say Ms. Smyth was a very good person who I could carry on my life with and ask her questions, especially when I get to college, about classes and books and stuff like that."

"I will have a bright future"

The longstanding connection between WCC and CTE has provided high school students with programming invaluable to both their career aspirations and their personal experiences. The programs and partnership have led to meaningful connections between fellow students, mentors, and potential employers.

"I seem to be enjoying it," Braatz says. "It is a hands-on, new learning experience for me, and I feel like I'm on the right path. If I keep doing what I need to do for school, I will have a bright future."
Doug CoombeAlijah Braatz is a student in Washtenaw Community College's automotive CTE program.
As Collins prepares to start nursing school at Eastern Michigan University this fall, she says the health science program gave her "a perfect head start." She says it helped her "test the water" for her future career and improve her time management skills. 

Fields, who is also moving on to nursing school at EMU, agrees that the CTE health science program has prepared her well to pursue college and her future career.

"I learned a lot of things and I made a lot of new friends and I learned a lot of great skills to take with me in my future health care adventure," she says. "... Overall, the experience was amazing."

Photos by Doug Coombe.