LAWRENCE: Career academies graduate to second year

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   With the shakedown year cruise under their belt, Lawrence High School’s three career academies are gearing up to offer juniors and seniors a taste of post-high school career options when the 2012-13 school year gets underway next week.
   The first year of the career academies — the Academy of Arts and Humanities, the Academy of Business and International Studies and the Academy of Science and Technology — went very well, said Lawrence High School Principal Jonathan Dauber.
   Now, LHS officials are looking forward to the second year of the career academies — including efforts to make connections between the students and the business and science communities, Mr. Dauber said.
   Students enrolled in the career academies must take language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and health, safety and physical education courses, which are required by state law, but they also have a chance to take elective courses offered in the academy.
   In the Academy of Arts and Humanities, students may take electives in the performing arts, such as concert band or wind ensemble. Multimedia arts offerings include introduction to photography and graphic arts. The humanities courses include criminal law, sociology, macro- and microeconomics and promising teachers of tomorrow.
   The Academy of Business and International Studies offers courses such as computer applications and entrepreneurship in the business education specialization, and early childhood development and fashion design in the family and consumer sciences specialty.
   The Academy of Science and Technology — also known as the STEM academy — allows students to take electives that range from math and science courses to computer science, applied engineering and architecture. Anatomy and physiology are offered in the health science specialty.
   Some tweaks to the academy course offerings may be in the works, such as ones that are geared toward jobs, Mr. Dauber said. Possibilities include “Principles of Investing,” for example. Language arts courses may also be revamped so students may study multi-cultural literature.
   ”We want to make the connection between careers and what is being taught in class,” he said. “Why do I have to learn this? What is the application? How will this benefit me in the world? How does math play into other careers?”
   But, mainly, the goal is to try to make connections in the community, Mr. Dauber said. A “mini-med” program between the STEM academy and Robert Wood Johnson Hospital at Hamilton gives students the chance to learn more about medical careers — whether it is a physician, a nurse or a hospital administrator, he said.
   Guests have been invited into the academies. Last year, they helped students in the Academy of Business and International Studies prepare a resume and practice job interviews, Mr. Dauber said. Students who were interested in a career in finance learned about their options from school district Business Administrator Tom Eldridge, who was invited to speak to them.
   Students also were encouraged to go out and earn credits by working in the community, “gaining a degree of insight” that they cannot get in a classroom, he said. Seeing what is required and expected of a job on a day-to-day basis is very different from listening to a speaker on Career Day, he added.
   ”In addition to giving the students some experience when they leave Lawrence High School, they will have a (better) understanding of what they want to do than we did 20 years ago,” said Mr. Dauber.