“Try not to look directly at the light…you can really hurt your eyes,” Chris Wright said as fellow welding student Glen Howard worked on arc welding, the brightest type. Welding is one of the many different types of hands on training FHS students get at CTC, formerly known as Vo-Tech. Every school day, a bus takes about two dozen FHS upperclassmen to the Beaver County Career and Technology Center (CTC), where their mornings are filled with sawdust, oil, hairspray or aprons as opposed to Promethean boards and laptops. These students are preparing themselves for careers in cosmetology, culinary arts, auto-mechanics and carpentry. As a sophomore, every FHS student has the opportunity to decide whether or not to enroll in the two-year program. After two years of taking classes in a specific career field – anything from health occupations or bricklaying to plumbing or landscaping – a student will graduate from the CTC program having a certification in their designated field. Not only that, but if a student scores “advanced” on the NOCTI, a standardized test for the occupational fields, they could potentially earn credits to carry over into the CCBC program next door. “[CTC] will put us way ahead of people starting college with us,” Senior Jenna Bell said. “I will be a certified nurse aide right out of the program, which puts me two years ahead of the people who didn’t take the program.” Tenth grade is the year for students at FHS to decide if they would like to continue their education at CTC as well as FHS. Sophomores still have the opportunity to sign up, as the permission slip isn’t due until April. Any sophomores who may have an interest are encouraged to attend the facilities for a half-day visit to experience what classes are like. The half-days will be scheduled a few students at a time over the next two months. Sophomore Bronek Foley is eager for his visit and to begin classes next year because he is interested in pursuing a career in welding. “You make a good amount of money and you can use it for just about anything,” Foley said. It’s important for underclassmen who may be interested in the program to make sure they keep their grades up, their credits up-to-date and their attendance record regular because there are only a certain amount of seats reserved in each class, and without those positive marks a student may not be placed in their first choice class. “I think it’s more fair that way,” Guidance Counselor Ms. Rita Kaplin said. Enthusiasm barely contained, prospective CTC student Avery Creegan said, “I’m pumped for [CTC], I wanna go now!”