The Columbia Public Schools 8th graders of Lange and Oakland Middle School got their first glimpse of what a Career Center class is on November 2 and 3. The students toured around the A Wing to get a first look of different Career Center classes, such as welding, agricultural classes, and biomedical science. The students also got a tour of the building to learn valuable tips and tricks for next year.

Ms Rebecca Wimer-Pisano, the Assistant Director at the Career Center, said, “The tour is a two full purpose and its introducing the students to the school and showing them the Career Center classes that are being presented in the A hallway. They will have seven minutes per station and it gives them the look of practical arts and will give them an option for next year.”

From being on the tour last year to being a member of the tour group is pretty impressive, especially for freshmen Braden Ambra who is currently in biomedical science. Ambra said, “It gives the students a feel of the curriculum and it can sway their opinion on what class they’re gonna take. When I took the tour last year, I got to experience biomedical science last year and it impacted me to take it and now I want to impact the 8th grade students to take it next year.” Ambra believes that the tour positively impacts the students, “Also a lot of the kids have told me that they are interested a lots of the classes they have seen”.

Many of the 8th graders had positive reactions to the tour of the building and excitedly talked about next year. Lange Middle School student Corey Bennett said, “The tour has been great and I really like the football field.” Oakland Middle School student, Jakobe Shepherd, had a great experience as well. Shepherd said, “It has been really fun, I have been enjoying learning about all the new stuff. My favorite class that I have seen so far is welding it seems really fun. Welding and engineering are way different then our elective classes we have at Oakland.” Shepherd got ideas about his class high school class selection from the tours. “If I had to take a class next year out of the bunch it would be Welding because I like to get dirty.”