One of the options the district offers to help prepare students for future careers is participating in the dual enrollment program through Lewis and Clark Career Center. Juniors Zack Mawhiney and Nate Holway both attend the Career Center in place of their morning classes.

“They’ve got all kinds of stuff, automotive repair, law enforcement, brickworking, advanced manufacturing, HVAC,” Holway said.

Holway is enrolled in the Welding class, while Mawhiney takes the Brick and Stonemasonry class. Lewis and Clark provides these programs in a very hands on-manner. Students receive classroom instruction and then take the skills they learned into the workshop.

“We have a textbook, most of the paper instruction was at the beginning of the year, because there’s so much in the weld shop that is dangerous,” Holway said.

The students in both of the classes began the year with health and safety information, and then worked their way into more and more complex constructions. They also sometimes have tests over the concepts they learned and vocabulary used in the class.

“We started with a corner, then a 10 brick wall, then 4/8 inch blocks, now we’re [working] on a Christmas scene,” Mawhiney said.  “We’ve made a brick couch, brick mailbox and a Christmas tree. In my class we mostly do practicals, we build the stuff and [Mr. Blattner] grades it.” 

The primary goal of Lewis and Clark is to prepare its students for employment in the trades. They do this by providing industry-recognized training and accreditation to their graduates.

“By the end of the course, we get two different welding certifications and we get an OSHA certification for free,” Holway said.

With certifications earned by the students over the course of the two years they attend Lewis and Clark, this makes them significantly better candidates in the modern job market. Additionally, Lewis and Clark professors have connections and contacts with many companies and unions in the fields that the students are going into.

“My instructors have contacts in other companies and Lewis and Clark can help,” Holway said.

While the students spend a part of their day at Lewis and Clark, they still have to take a few classes at North. Lewis and Clark covers all of their elective credits for graduation. Along with this, there is the option for credit dismissal through Lewis and Clark.

In order to attend Lewis and Clark, the students had to fill out an application and write about why they should be allowed the privilege to attend the school.

“There was an online application and you had to write an essay about why you should be picked for the course and you had to take an [aptitude] test,” Holway said.

Post-graduation, Lewis and Clark will also help the students secure an apprenticeship under another tradesman or further education in the trades through schools like Ranken, the largest technical college in Missouri. One way Lewis and Clark help prepare students for the trades is by having a very high standard for the quality of work the students should be doing.

“There’s a very high expectation of what should be completed and how it should be completed,” Holway said, “You can work really hard on a weld all day and he tells you to do it again, that’s really frustrating.”