From culinary arts to veterinarian medicine programs, IHS students are able to get real career training as part of their education through a special half-day vocational program offered through Southern Westchester BOCES – Center for Career Services.
This two-year program may even give students the opportunity to gain credit for college.
Ms. Emily Colman, a guidance chairperson at IHS said, “What we find are that students who maybe aren’t interested in classes that we’re offering here or want an experience of leaving the building are really successful.”
The Votech program provides students with real world experiences in a particular career that culminate in an exam or project.
“The culinary people will cook food for everybody, and there’s a service department where if you break your car they’ll help fix your car,” said Ms. Colman.
In the past there has been a stigma around this program, according to Ms. Colman.
“When talking about secondary plans, I think that’s one of the mistakes people make going into this program. They think if they do this program it will somehow negatively impact their college or post-secondary plans, which is not the case at all. It actually kind of makes you stand out a little bit from other people.”
Ypapanti “Yippi” Perselis, a junior, joined the nursing program.
“I signed up for the nursing program because I want to pursue that career later in life. I want to go to college for nursing so this program gives me a head start.”
If students are interested, they should talk to their guidance counselors.
