As the school year comes to a near end, students at Gilbreath-Reed Career and Technical Center (GRCTC) got an opportunity to experience a career that will be available to them after high school. 

GRCTC has advanced technology courses that allow students to take advanced-level career classes. These students thought that they should take a course because it would help them decide what pathway they want.  

“I decided to take this course because I had a feeling that I could be a vet assistant, and I love animals and I thought, why not learn more about them” said senior Favour Samuel, who is taking the veterinary medical lab class. 

Senior medical assistant student Lizbeth Vazquez already knows what path she wants to pursue. She is taking this course to be certified as a Medical assistant and as an electrocardiograph technician (EKG). With the certification, she is able to work at a hospital or clinic.

“I’m planning on going into the pre-med route, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to begin learning about some medicine,” she said.

Junior Anica Sanford had taken an architecture class at her home school and is now taking the class at GRCTC.

“I wanted to know more about it,” she said. 

If she chooses to go down this path in the future, she will be certified in Revit, which is a commercial building information modeling software.

In these classes, students didn’t just learn about the basics but about other job positions similar to theirs as well. Sanford learned about concept models and different conceptual ideas, while Samuel said her class covered “literally everything you need to know about veterinarians.”

This was the first time they attended a class at GRCTC and got to meet students from other schools and work along with them. The classes are three hours long and provide more hands-on experience. Morning classes start earlier than the classes at their home campus. According to them, their first year came as a positive experience. 

“It’s more independent than LC, as long as you are respectful,” Vazquez said. 

As for Sanford, she truly enjoyed the teacher. 

“He’s very nice and very caring,” she said. 

Samuel also stated that she liked how the course is taught step by step.