Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories about CareerPrep 2030, a Kent ISD initiative to expand offerings and boost student enrollment in career and technical education over the next five years.
Part 1: Initiative aims to double enrollment in career & technical education by 2030
All districts — Ever since she was little, Northview High School junior Jacqueline Solis has wanted to go into medicine. Her mother’s pregnancy last year cemented her desire to become a sonographer, a person who performs ultrasounds.
But Jacqueline’s chance of getting into the Kent Career Tech Center to explore health career options seemed slim. Since the pandemic, enrollment requests for the Tech Center have gone up by 40%, with 60% of those students ending up on the waitlist, said Joe Lienesch, CTE director for Kent ISD.
“I did sign up for (the Tech Center), but from each school they only take, like, three or four students, so I doubted that I’d be able to go — I just felt like it was a closed door,” Jacqueline said.
That door swung wide open when, last spring, Northview High School announced the Tech Center’s Health Career Foundations class would be offered at the school.
“When they came back and said that they’re actually going to be starting a class right here in our school, it made me so happy that I had the opportunity again,” Jacqueline said. “To be able to actually learn more about what I want to do, it’s just a blessing.”
Expanding CTE Opportunities through Partnership
Northview is one of four school districts that have partnered with the Kent ISD to offer Health Career Foundations at their districts for the 2024-25 school year.
The partnerships formed are a direct outcome of Kent ISD’s CareerPrep 2030 initiative, aimed at expanding career and technical education offerings. Launched two years ago, CareerPrep 2030 sets a goal to double student participation in CTE programs by reaching 10,000 students — about 67% of the 11th- and 12th-grade population in the district, which is roughly 15,154 students for the 2023-2024 school year, according to MiSchool Data.
Achieving this goal was no quick fix, said Cary Stamas, Kent ISD’s director of college and career readiness. With limited capacity at the Tech Center and no available space for expansion, the team had to explore new solutions. After some discussion, Stamas said the college and career readiness team decided to “try something” innovative to make it happen.
‘(A) High school diploma is a wonderful thing, but you need training and technical training and skills for the jobs that are really going to be careers.’
— Cary Stamas, Kent ISD director of college and career readiness
That something was a partnership with Wyoming Public Schools to offer an Applied Anatomy and Physiology Class. Stamas said the goal was to evaluate how this type of classroom would function. Kent ISD supplied the lab, and the class was co-taught by teachers from both Wyoming and the Tech Center, blending the Tech Center’s Health Career Foundations course with the high school’s standard anatomy class.
The class received positive response from both students and the district, so last spring, the college and career readiness team decided to take the next step: offer ISD-led CTE programs at local districts.
The team looked at Tech Center enrollment numbers, focusing on which schools had a concentration of students interested in a specific course such as Health Career Foundations, Stamas said. They found four such districts: Wyoming, Kentwood, Northview and Sparta.
“We looked at districts that already have kids who want to do this, because it’s not about creating the opportunity and then filling it, it’s (about) who wants this to start,” Stamas said. He added that 85 students in the four local districts are taking the Health Career Foundations classes, thus reducing the Tech Center waitlist. Furthermore, if a student occupying a seat at the Tech Center moves to their home district, it opens up a spot for another student, he said.
Through the partnership, Kent ISD provides all the lab materials and teachers and the local district provides the classroom space, furniture and students.
Discovering a New Career Path
The Health Career Foundations class at Northview High School is held in a sprawling, open space that formerly served as the school’s media center. Taught by Dr. Ariel Blackburn, a doctor of chiropractic, the full-year class for juniors and seniors spans two class periods each afternoon, giving students ample time to explore all aspects of health care through both lectures and hands-on labs.
“We go all the way from suturing a banana to casting to posture analysis, and everything in between, which is really cool,” Blackburn said. “I get to take those things I love about practicing medicine and bring it to the students with real-world scenarios.”
Being able to get this kind of curriculum in front of students already in high school can be hugely beneficial to students searching for the right fit after graduation, Blackburn said.
“This Foundations class allows (students) to see what is even out there (for career options) from a health-care standpoint before they even get to college, which I think is so important,” she said. “I had no idea that there were so many options when I was their age.”
This class certainly opened a career option for senior Brooklyn Koomen. As business manager of the NHS yearbook, Brooklyn had her sights set on a business or marketing career path. Although she loved biology and other science classes, working in the medical field had never crossed her mind, mostly for one big reason: her “crippling fear of blood.”
But when her guidance counselor suggested the new health-care class at the last minute last spring, she thought, “Why not?”
“I wanted to experience something that I was afraid of,” Brooklyn explained. “I wanted to shove myself head-first into one of my biggest fears. And it turned out to be one of the things I enjoy the most.”
Removing a Roadblock
Brooklyn said she could not have taken the health class without its being offered at Northview. Her yearbook manager duties require her to be on-site during fourth period and so traveling to the Tech Center was not an option in her schedule.
Her lab partner, Jacqueline, said having the class at Northview saves her gas money on trips to the Tech Center. She also appreciates being at a familiar facility where her friends are.
Travel to the Tech Center is a hurdle for many students seeking CTE instruction, Stamas said. Including travel time, visiting the Tech Center could take up to three hours of a student’s day; offering the program in a student’s school takes less time and can remove other roadblocks, as well.
“By us offering this pilot program, we’re able to branch out and get more students under the CTE avenue, versus having to wait or not even being able to have the opportunity at all,” said Blackburn. “Bringing it to the local school districts allows more kids to get the experience.”
Now, with half a year to go before graduation, Brooklyn has her sights set on going to medical school and becoming an emergency room pediatrician. It’s a career she couldn’t have imagined without the Health Career Foundations class.
“It’s such a crazy thing to say, that I’m working towards the medical field, but this class has really helped me get over my fears,” she said. “I can still get everything done for the yearbook, and then I can come to this class right here and get my career path figured out and get prepared for the future.”
Brooklyn’s story illustrates the ultimate goal of CareerPrep 2030: to help students discover unknown pathways by offering them the chance to explore a variety of careers.
“If we don’t do a good job of giving them pathway exposure, they only know what their parents know or other relatives (know),” Stamas said. “So the more you increase their exposure to different pathways and professions, the more options they have.”
Going Out On Their Own
While the new programs have only operated for one semester, Stamas said Kent ISD has seen some positive results, with students in local programs performing as well or better on assessments as those in the Tech Center.
But the biggest success has been local districts seeing how CTE programs are run and recognizing they can do these programs themselves, he said.
Such was the case for Sparta Area Schools, which has been working with Kent ISD and Michigan State University to expand its Future Farmers of America agriscience program. A teacher academy is also being developed to broaden offerings for students who hope to go into education, said Sparta High School Principal Stacey Rumsey.
“The teacher academy … was the direct result of having the health class on campus,” Rumsey said. “We have offered a class for students interested in education for many years but with the help of the ISD … (we) have been able to take the next step.”
The district is now working to offer its students early childhood education certifications as well as college credit at Grand Valley State University, starting with the 2025-2026 school year.
Expanding Beyond School Districts
Along with its partnerships for the Health Career Foundations program, Kent ISD has partnered with Northview to offer an integrated technology class and with Grandville for a teacher academy program.
‘It’s such a crazy thing to say, that I’m working towards the medical field, but this class has really helped me get over my fears.’
— Northview senior Brooklyn Koomen, on the Health Career Foundations class
Expanding CTE options also has extended to outside partners, Stamas said. Davenport University has added a medical assistant program to help with demand in Caledonia and Kentwood. The job skills training center NextStep of West Michigan has a woodworking program, and West Michigan Construction Institute provides construction industry training.
Stamas said there are also CTE-like programs that do not meet the state CTE criteria for certifications, such as having a teacher who has worked in that specific field, but still provide some CTE programming.
These are often offered on the local level, for example a high school accounting class where students are being introduced to business principles, Stamas said.
“Whether it’s an official state CTE or not is not as important as (the students are) getting these experiences … the contextual learning that really is meaningful in supporting kids as they’re moving down pathways,” Stamas said. “(A) high school diploma is a wonderful thing, but you need training and technical training and skills for the jobs that are really going to be careers.”
Reporters Beth Heinen Bell and Riley Kelley contributed to this story.
Read more from Kent ISD:
• Teaching the future teachers
• Hands-on health care training
