LPS’ Career Academy has been helping students plot their futures for 10 years

Inside The Career Academy at Lincoln Public Schools, a lot is happening all at once.

Sparks are flying in the welding booths while students practice CPR upstairs. Sawdust piles up in the shop, while students are sauteing, baking and chopping ingredients down the hall in the culinary department. Classrooms are full of students learning about everything from bioscience to criminal justice to entrepreneurship to early childhood education.

“That’s what (The Career Academy) is — it’s a dynamic educational space,” director Josh Jones said.

For 10 years now, The Career Academy has been a place where students have been able to carve a path for themselves and explore a variety of future career opportunities. Since its grand opening in 2015 in partnership with Southeast Community College, the program intended to provide students with real-life career experiences in high school has more than doubled in size.

The program, located at 8800 O St., opened as part of a $153 million bond issue with nearly 330 students enrolled. Now in its 10th year, the program has more than 800 students enrolled and 17 career opportunities for students to choose from. Several pathways, like welding and health sciences, are even completely full now.

The program has also gradually resulted in students enrolling at SCC upon high school graduation, according to Jones, who has worked at The Career Academy for eight years.

“Not only are we growing both size-wise, but we’re just growing in the experience and who we are as a school,” he said. “I think we have an identity now, which is a unique focus program here, providing students with an opportunity to really make choices, take ownership of their experience in high school.”

Through The Career Academy, Lincoln juniors and seniors are able to select from a wide range of pathways to follow to receive dual credit from both their home high schools and SCC in the category of their choosing. Students then typically spend half the day at their home schools and the other half at The Career Academy taking courses in their preferred pathway.

When Kevin Dunkle first took up a post at The Career Academy teaching precision machining seven years ago, he had two students in the morning and two in the afternoon. Now, he teaches more than 20 precision machining students each day, including a group of students from the Independence Academy, a program for students in special education.

He also now teaches a course one night a week to high school students at Lighthouse, an after-school program for students in middle and high school. Next year, he wants to offer a class for students in grades 6-8 to help expose younger students to the many future opportunities available to them at The Career Academy.

“It just keeps growing,” he said.

But the growth seen at The Career Academy over the past decade wasn’t accomplished overnight, Jones said.

The program’s success so far is the culmination of a lot of work done by a variety of people and entities across Lincoln — from the staff at middle and high schools encouraging students to explore varying career opportunities to the work put in by SCC. The program also has a list of teachers who are experts in their fields, allowing students to learn from the best.

Plus, the program has the support of the community and a wide range of local businesses, who support students through field trips, philanthropic opportunities and job opportunities and internships.

“So when you see all of those entities coming together for the benefit of students — but really for all of Lincoln, because this is our future workforce — it’s a pretty dynamic thing to watch,” Jones said. “It’s a special environment we’ve created here and it’s a collection of so many people’s efforts.”

“It takes the entire community to do this. It’s not just the public schools or the community college. That’s the whole community coming together and investing in students,” he added.

When students leave The Career Academy, they not only have some college credit under their belts, but they walk away with a sense of accomplishment and an idea of what they may want for their future careers, Jones said.

Caleb Stamm is a testament to that.

Without The Career Academy, the Lincoln North Star senior says he likely still wouldn’t know what he wants to do after high school. Through the academy, he’s been able to test drive several pathways, like engineering and welding, but he found his true passion lies with precision machining.

Now, he plans to attend SCC in Milford next fall and “very enthusiastically” pursue a career in machining.

“If I hadn’t been introduced to machining, I would still be deciding what I wanted to do. I might go to a four-year college, spend a bunch of money to figure out what I want to do,” he said. “Because I got the chance early, I don’t have to do that.”

As Jones looks to the next 10 years of The Career Academy, he’s excited to continue to watch the program grow and adapt. Someday, he hopes to exceed 1,000 students enrolled and expand offerings for students at the Independence Academy.

But regardless of where the future takes the program, the work to provide career opportunities for every student will continue, he said.

“We’re just going to continue to grow,” he said.