From learning how to do basic automotive repairs to starting a career in the nursing field, students who make the trip to State Fair Community College Career and Technology Center each day are coming back with skills they can apply to their future careers and life in general.  

   “CTC benefits me to be able to have a different environment and learn new things you don’t learn from just a regular high school,” senior Jolina Givens said. Givens is in her second year in the CTC Automotive program.

   “CTC benefits me because I love taking care of people and I wanna be a nurse so I will get my CNA and be on the pathway to be the best nurse I can be. Also, the hands-on experience is amazing. It also has benefited me in my social life, the kids that ride on the CTC bus are basically family,” junior Angie Duzan said. 

    State Fair Community College provides an outstanding program for high school students to get a head start on their future careers in vocational fields. CTC has multiple programs juniors and seniors can take, providing them for multiple districts. The sending school districts are Cole Camp, Green Ridge, LaMonte, Lincoln, Northwest, Otterville, Smithon, Sedalia, Tiption, and Warsaw. The program provides financial benefit by including grants and scholarships. The first two years of the program are free, college costs begin after graduation. This benefits many students allowing them to get the education they strive for. Many juniors and seniors take this route gaining many benefits from it. 

   Before attending the program, students get interested or involved in different ways. This might be from a teacher, a friend, online post, or just a desire. 

   “What interested me in CTC was what I could learn to help me in situations that might happen to me later on in life,” junior Cody Parks said. Parks is attending the Industrial Equipment Maintenance program. 

   Along with all the many benefits of CTC, there are some negatives for some students and their daily schedules. 

    “The only negative effect of it would be the 10 hour course for career safety, with everything on my plate it’s hard to really sit down and do the course because it’s very time consuming with all of the videos and in between quizzes,” Duzan said. 

   Tyler Richardson, high school counselor, organizes a lot of the testing and planning for students wanting to attend the program. 

   “The planning process starts in middle school when Mrs. (Katie) Johnson does four year plans with 8th graders.  There is typically a trip in 8th grade to CTC to view the programs, and what all is offered.  Then students put in their four year plans the course at CTC they are interested in.  We revisit this in Freshman year for schedules and career planning, and again sophomore year.  There is a lot of paperwork that is submitted for every student applicant. Transcripts, ICap’s and evaluation forms are filled for every student.  There are also rubrics that must be completed for every student when there are more students applying than what we have spots for,” Richardson said. 

   The planning and preparation of CTC starts prior to junior and senior year, helping students make choices sooner and more beneficial for them. Richardson says the benefit of CTC is “It provides career/job training and in these fields provides certifications and credentials to go to work right after high school into a high paying job.”

   While students return to the program, younger students plan their desired schedule and start deciding what they want to do. 

   “Benefits I will get from attending CTC is learning more on how I can become what I want to be and what I need to do and learn,” sophomore Jaylen McCullick said. 

    “It is all round a good place to go if you want to learn certain things,” Parks said.