CAPS, or Center for Advanced Professional Studies, will now be offered to FHSD students this upcoming semester. CAPS is a business immersion program that provides real-world experiences for students interested in business fields. Due to the class running like a tech class, with a morning session from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and an afternoon session from noon to 2:30 p.m, the course will only be open to 2017-18 juniors and seniors who are currently on track for graduation.

“This is an exciting time for me because I want to see students being successful, and we want to prepare them for the future,” John Omoresemi, CAPS Technology Solutions instructor, said. “So I see my role as a way of helping bridge the gap between what the businesses and public education can do working together.”

The CAPS program, which has already been implemented into many schools around the nation, has three strands: Business/Entrepreneurship, Health Care and Technology Solutions. The District has decided that out of those three programs it will implement the Technology Solutions strand. In the course, students will learn technical skills for technology careers in the business field. They will receive hands-on experiences with the opportunity to work with businesses, with internships and projects.

“As a district, we feel like Technology Solutions is a great way to meet the needs of the community,” Omoresemi said. “St. Charles County is becoming a hub for quite a few technology companies, and it’s an area of a lot of employment opportunities where jobs go unfilled. We want to look into how can we prepare our students now for the work force of the future. So we can start in terms of having students do some career exploration in high school to see if possibly this may be an area they would like to pursue for college education.”

The course was promoted to students, specifically targeting PLTW, multimedia and journalism courses, looking for students passionate about technology and interested in pursuing a career in technology.

“I’m excited because this program allows me to get first-hand experience in the field I want to work in,” senior Jenny Blanchard said. “As of right now, I plan on majoring in business and minoring in marketing. This course will help me determine if business is the right path for me because I will have the opportunity to work with real companies.”

Omoresemi, as well as Nicole Whitesell, FHSD’s Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Chris Greiner, Director of Student Learning, and Content Leader Kara Dalton have been working alongside with the District with other school districts in the area, such as Wentzville, Orchard Farm and St. Charles, to perfect the program and learn how to run it. In the future, these districts may come together for the CAPS program. With each district offering different strands of CAPS, students may have the opportunity to take different strands at different schools in future years.

The District will work with businesses in the area to provide classroom space, mentors, field trips, internships and real world projects. This allows students to get experiences that a normal classroom environment can’t provide. With businesses like Spectrum and Mastercard being partners, the program will be able to work with these companies to set up field trips and bring in speakers for the class, as well as Spectrum providing classroom space for the class in their building at Riverport.

“It’s definitely been a group effort, and it wouldn’t have happened without everyone working together,” Whitesell said.