Career Tech Center (CTC) is an option for all juniors and seniors. It is an opportunity to spend half of the school day learning hands-on skills related to a career that best suits students as individuals. The center offers 23 career fields that range from working on cars to web and app development. Many students opt to take these courses, especially if they already have an idea of what they want to do after high school and want to get more experience in the field. Senior Cameron Oliver is one of the students who attended CTC for both his junior and senior years. He decided to go to CTC to learn the skills needed to become a lineman.

  “My decision to go into the trades was mainly because I know how needed they are and how much money you can make from them. When it comes to the trades I’m more interested in the journey it’s going to take for me to get where I would like to be and where it could take me,” Oliver said.

  Oliver leaves with advice to incoming students to CTC, though it rings true for all students.

  “Always have a backup plan to fall back on because that’s what CTC was to me in the start and turned out to become my main plan because I loved it so much,” Oliver said.

  Senior Erin Schworm also attended CTC for two years, specifically for learning more about electrical occupations. She came into CTC with an exposure to the trade, her father has had a large impact on what she wants to do occupational-wise. 

  “My father has been in the trades his entire life, growing up he made sure to include me in as many projects as possible. This is what inspired me to go into the electrical field. I wanted as early of a start as I could get, hence why I signed up for CTC’s electrical occupations,” Schworm said.

  Her plan is to work for an electrical company, then travel to Lansing to work on a power plant for a new and upcoming three-year project. She previously was employed by an electrical company before her senior year. 

  Schworm values her time at CTC and moves on with final words of guidance to students thinking of joining the program.

  “Spend less time on your phone and more time looking around because it’s so easy to pass by everything. This education is one of a kind and requires total focus,” Schworm said.