Polk County School District focuses on getting students career ready

Whether they want to be an engineer, a nurse or a teacher, Mulberry High students will now get some hands-on experience, industry certifications and college credit in prospective fields with three new career academies starting this year.

Mulberry High's technology, medical and future educators programs will join the 105 career academies across the Polk County School District.

"The main issue I've found is a perception that there is a lack of rigor here," said Principal Michael Young, who has been at Mulberry High for three years. "What appeals to me is that with these programs there are no deadends for our students.

"It's important to me that they have a post-secondary transition, whether it's into a university, Polk State College, Traviss (Technical College) or the workforce with an industry certification," Young said. "I want them all to have something that will make them marketable to the community."

Career academies are small, personalized learning communities within Polk's middle and high schools.

Mulberry High already has in culinary and auto academies, as well as opportunities for students in agriculture through Future Farmers of America.

Young surveyed students and found they are also interested in careers in healthcare and technology.

"We want to offer them a broad career path," he said. 

The medical academy, for example, will touch on everything up to being a doctor, he said, and the technology academy will expose students to jobs in manufacturing and robotics. 

The medical academy will start with a 120-student cohort, the technology academy will have a 100-student cohort and the future educators academy will have a 20-student cohort. 

The future educators academy is part of a larger district initiative to introduce students to the education field to fill the national, state and district-level need for teachers.

Each of the academies is strategic in that it is meant to fill community and industry needs, while also steering students in the direction of careers with available jobs and competitive wages, said Marc Hutek, assistant superintendent of career, technical, adult and multiple pathways.

"Mulberry High is really pushing this year in trying to create opportunities for their kids," Hutek said. "Michael Young came in and said, 'I have to start offering things that these students like and will prepare them for successful futures.'"

Students will be able to graduate with up to 30 college credit hours in place — worth half an associate's degree — as well as industry certifications that will allow them to enter the workforce out of high school if they do not plan to go to college. 

Mulberry High's future educators program will be modeled after already established future educators academies in the district, including Bartow High's, which is recognized as a national model.

Young hopes students in that program will ultimately participate in externships at neighboring schools and move on to pursue careers in education.

The school is partnering with Central Florida Health Care for its medical academy, in which students will first take an anatomy class, then move into classes that will offer medical foundations and electrocardiogram (EKG) training.

And in the technology academy, students will work on robotics and code writing through a partnership with FedEx, and engineering and manufacturing through a partnership with Polk State College.

Howard Drake, director of Polk State's Corporate College, said he wants to create a different perspective about manufacturing jobs.

"The perception is that these are dark, dirty and dangerous jobs," Drake said, "but with technology, instead of manning forklifts, you're now manning computers and these are high-demand, high-wage jobs."

Drake said the corporate college has a responsibility to train a workforce for the community — a similar sentiment echoed by Hutek about the district's career academies.

"What we're hearing from the community is that there is no pipeline of students to fill the gaps when we retire," Drake said. "We're excited to partner with Mulberry High because a byproduct of that will be creating that pipeline of employees for our local manufacturers."

In that program, students will be able to earn 15 college credits — worth a quarter of an associate's degree — toward an engineering degree from a state college. And they will also be able to earn industry certifications accepted across the country.

About 6,000 manufacturing jobs are open nationwide, Drake said, and, in Polk, the average wage in manufacturing is $55,000 per year.

By the end of their high school career, students in the program will be able to spend class time at Polk State's Clear Springs Advanced Technology Center working with the college's state-of-the-art training equipment.

Young said he hopes the new opportunities at Mulberry High motivate students to explore different careers and get workforce ready.

"If their goal isn't a long academic career, they need to have something practical upon graduation so that they can work at a competitive wage," Young said. "There should be no shame about not going to college, but students do need credentials, whether a certification or associate's degree, because we live in the generation of life-long learning.

"I want my students to be ready for anything." 

Madison Fantozzi can be reached at madison.fantozzi@theledger.com, 863-401-6971 or 863-802-7547. Follow her on Twitter @madisonfantozzi.

Polk County career academies

There are 105 career academies in Polk County School District schools. Twenty-one are certified through the National Career Academy Coalition and 10 of those are recognized as national models. 

Certified and model academies:

• Academy of Design & Technology at George Jenkins High School.

• Academy of Legal Studies at George Jenkins High School.

• Medical Academy at George Jenkins High School.

• Academy of Natural Resources at Kathleen High School.

• Central Florida Aerospace Academy at Kathleen High School.

• Ag Dogs Agriscience Academy at Frostproof High School.

•  Medical Academy at Auburndale High School.

• Culinary Academy at Bartow High School.

• Future Educators Academy at Bartow High School.

• Summerlin Academy at Bartow High School.

Certified academies:

• Academy of Finance at Lake Gibson High School.

• Academy of Health at Lake Gibson High School.

• Polk Academy of Business & Technology at Lake Gibson High School.

• Academy of Pharmacy Technicians at Fort Meade High School.

• Agrowtechnology Academy at Fort Meade High School.

• Medical and Fire Academy at Bartow High School.

• Distrotek (business management and distribution) at Kathleen High School.

• Engineering Technology Academy at Ridge Community High School.

• Medical Academy at Ridge Community High School.

• Environmental Agriculture and Technology Academy at Haines City High School.

• Lakeland Electric Power Academy at Tenoroc High School.