Courier Online - September 2018, NEWS.
The Delaware Area Career Center is a growing alternative to traditional school in the Northern Columbus area. This school year, The Career Center is expanding, and recently opened a new expansion building on it’s South campus.
The career center is planning to combine both it’s North campus, and its South campus in the upcoming years, to form one large, main campus, hosting students from the Olentangy, Delaware schools, and Worthington districts. The new building has many new state of the art features that are not found in traditional schools, including engineering labs, computer and design studios, and even a cosmetology studio.
“We were in such an old facility before, that the new building really does not lack anything. We are just getting used to it, so maybe I will find something that it could have included, but for now, I am thrilled with every aspect of it!” Says Career Center Instructor Joshua Gallagan. “I love to add non-traditional items to our learning spaces so that students feel like they are working at Google, or Amazon, or some other modern organization”
Although this new building will house classrooms and workspaces for many students, parts of the old original building will still be used after renovation. In fact, the new building is not even fully opened yet. This school year is the last year that the career center will have two campuses. The career center will only use just the south campus, beginning with the 2019-2020 School year. Until then, the south campus still has a lot of ongoing construction and renovations as they prepare for the future. “It is kind of annoying how there is a lot of construction going on right now, but they are trying their best to keep it from distracting us students, and they are doing a pretty good job” says DACC student Jackson Uhl.
The DACC is considered by many students to be a beneficial and unique option to choose, rather than just sitting in conventional school classrooms. “I like how the career center is very different than conventional school” Says DACC student Jackson Uhl. “Typically in traditional school, you just get assignments, and you are told to complete them. But at the DACC, you not only get some assignments, but you get to do a lot of hands on activities, and you even get extra time so you can study and research more about whatever your studying.”
The career center offers a large amount of programs that give students a true inside look at what certain job fields can have in store, and also allow students to get up close and hands on with what certain jobs could have them doing in the future, such as digital designer, doctor, or even law enforcement.
Another large benefit students get from going to the career center, is that students can get experience with different careers, so that they can jump right into the field sooner than if they would have stayed in traditional school. It is not uncommon to see students graduate from the DACC and go right into the career field they studied.
The DACC does have a couple drawbacks, however. The program does take students away from the traditional high school experience. This can be a problem in students social lives. Students can also almost feel as if they are left out. “Since we're not at the school full day, we don't get too see as many people that somebody who goes to school full day. It does limit how many friendships we can have at our actual school.” Says DACC Student Jackson Uhl.
Although the DACC does have a couple negatives, it can also provide a lot of benefits for students, and can certainly provide experience for the real world. It really is different than “normal” school. The new building, as well as the one campus design will certainly provide a lot of positives in the future, and will continue to give kids a one of a kind learning experience.
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