Algood Middle School students can explore when school reopens, as the College and Career Ready Lab has been completed.
Principal Rusty Darley said the new center offers 19 different modules and is designed for students to figure out what career paths align with their strengths. Darley said exposing middle schoolers to these opportunities will help them better prepare for high school.
“A lot of times, we’ll get students in high school who want to take these different classes and find out what they’re interested in,” Darley said. “And it takes them, it could take them two or three classes to figure that out. And by that time, they have burned two or three credits that they could be used for something else, or to go deeper into that career field.”
Darley said unlike vocational programs of old, some of the modules offered are for careers that require a college degree. Darley said the lab will also expose students to post secondary opportunities, especially in the medical field.
Darley said the modules may help keep students engaged with hands on activities. Darley said it engagement is important to helping kids want to come to school.
“[Students] can spend a minimum two weeks on each module,” Darley said. “There’s different programs you can go through in each module, and I think they can be able to complete, by the time they leave Algood Middle School, they can probably complete 12-16 modules and have a pretty good idea of what they want to do.”
Although the lab is in Algood, there may opportunities for students across the district to try out the lab. Darley said he has been in talks with CTE Supervisor Jackie Vester, as well as a few middle schools in the district.
“We’ve talked about doing maybe field trips,” Darley said. “Or you can sign out, we have some fifth grade modules and totes that we can sign out to other schools so that they can see what it’s about. So it’s definitely a developing plan.