Empowering students to explore careers before graduation

PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- Plymouth High School is hosting its second annual Career and Technical Education Fair geared towards helping students make future career decisions.

The CTE fair is a chance for students to discover more than just traditional college options.

Plymouth High School will be showcasing 17 CTE shared-based programs, and eight CTE Plymouth-only building-based programs for the students to learn more about their opportunities in high school.

Students will be able to network with representatives from the military, internships, vocational programs, and even local businesses to explore endless opportunities.

Plymouth schools have a huge increase in participation. Last year they had 10-15 colleges and this year they will have over 20 employers and colleges present to engage with students and encourage them to explore options for their future.

Students from surrounding schools including Argos, John Glenn, Laville, Lincoln Junior High School, St. Michael, Triton, and Urey Middle School will join Plymouth High School students in finding opportunities that may not be available at their school.

BJ Awald, Director of Guidance at Plymouth High School, encourages students to take advantage. However, it is mandatory for all Plymouth students that are in 8-12th grade to narrow their plans for life after high school.

“Ask questions in person, people will be here to answer for you, so it’s good to say yes, no, so but until you actually see it and talk to those people, you actually don't know the definite answer to those, so this is the time to do that exploring.” said Awald.

These programs are designed to help students hit the ground running upon graduation and Shannon Verhaeghe is the Veterinary Science Instructor, who wishes she had opportunities like this when she was in high school.

“I think it would just have been supportive as a high school student to have been around like-minded people that were interested in the same career and also have an adult kind of speak into my life and help coach me that on like, you can do this, or you can do that, with their skillset.” said Verhaeghe.

Their two-year veterinary program exposes students to real life experiences in their field, giving them a chance to gain 245 hours of training while being evaluated on over 78 skills.

Ruby Lopez- Silas is a student in the program that shares how beneficial these opportunities are.

“We have a bunch of field trips you can go on and there’s always different insights of like different places, like we went to a zoo and got the zoological like aspect and then we're going to go to a veterinarian hospital so that’s going to be even bigger than just a clinic,” said Lopez- Silas

New CTE programs are underway including Auto-Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Robotics for surrounding schools to explore.

If you want to take advantage of their hands-on training and real-life scenarios that come with each CTE program you can learn more information here to prepare for your future upon graduation.