Thursday, January 18, 2018

Delaware Area Career Center

The Delaware Area Career Center (DACC) offers a wide range of programs to help students get a jump start on their college and career plans.  If you have never been to the career center you and your parents are encouraged to go to the Open House one week from today - Thursday, January 25, 2018 from 5 to 7pm.  During the open house you will have the opportunity to visit the hands-on labs and meet with the instructors and some of the current students to learn about all of the different options available.  The DACC is a great option for earning elective credits and there are a wide range of impressive programs available for students!

Don't forget that even if attending the career center, WKHS students are always WKHS students. With most programs you will have the option of attending the career center for full days (where you would take your lab coursework which counts as elective credits and your academic courses all at the career center) or for half days (where you only take the lab coursework at the career center and then return to WKHS for the other half of the day for your academic classes). You will graduate from Worthington Kilbourne and continue to participate on our athletic teams - even if you decide that you want to attend the career center for the full day. I strongly encourage you to check out the programs as the hands on opportunities to learn something new while also gaining your required elective credits can be a very appealing option.

My students who have attended the DACC have loved it!  They like the opportunity to push themselves in an area, the chance to determine if a career field is right for them, and to learn in different ways than the traditional classroom setting.  Each time I step foot into a DACC lab, I am impressed by all the things that students are doing.  Whether it was building sheds, welding, driving fire trucks, playing with kids, repairing cars, cooking & serving food, participating in research on animals at the zoo, teaching, or focusing on providing pain-free dental experiences, all of the students were engaged and thriving.  Most of the programs at the Delaware Area Career Center are 2 year programs for students to complete their junior and senior years, but there are some sophomore programs and some senior only programs.   For example, the pharmacy tech program is one of the senior only programs that is very popular.

If you didn’t participate in the field trip back in November and would still like to learn more about the opportunities at the Delaware Area Career Center you can still visit!  They have second look days coming up where you can visit one of the DACC campuses and spend time in the labs seeing what the students in that program are doing on a day-to-day basis.  

In just a few weeks we will begin the registration process for next year’s classes and I wanted to remind all students about the great opportunities available at the career center.  It is important to remember though that the Delaware Area Career Center requires students to apply and the priority deadline is coming up this Friday, February 2nd.  So, if you are interested in applying to DACC, please get your application completed and submitted online ASAP.

When you are completing the WKHS online registration, for current juniors who are already enrolled as students at DACC, as long as you are in good standing with your program then you are automatically eligible to continue in your program next year.  So, when you register you will select the 1/2 day or Full day option that you prefer and register only for the classes at WKHS that you plan on taking.

If you are a sophomore or junior who has applied to the career center then when you are completing the online course registration, you will fill out the request as if you are taking a full day at WKHS.  Later, when you find out that you have been accepted to the program of your choice, then I will go back in and adjust your classes to reflect your half day or full day DACC preference.

For more information about the Delaware Area Career Center programs, please visit their website at www.delawareacc.org.

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