Intending to expand and explore their future options, sophomores at Nixa High School went on a field trip to Ozark Technical Community College. The field trip included over 1,200 sophomores, divided among 20 schools in total.
The purpose of this trip was for the sophomores to be able to see the campus and see what the college has to offer to benefit their futures with a walk-through tour. During the tour, students got separated into different clusters based on the type of career that they were interested in and signed up for prior to the trip. The different cluster trips lasted between twenty to 45 minutes each.
With the coming second quarter, students learn more about ways to help increase their success in the academic field and work to become more prepared for the future in whatever life has to offer in their paths.
College and Career Counselor Dianne Hartsell has experience with handling students’ futures.
“I think just going in with an open mind, because part of the process is figuring out what you like, but part of it is figuring out what you don’t like and you don’t know that until you try something,” Hartsell said.
In total, OTC has twenty-two classes offered to high school students. The classes range from early childhood development to engineering, electronic media and even culinary arts.
Some students find what they love through the program, and others may not, but needless to say, it is possible to make a side career from their journey in the OTC and still focus on the main goal of a student’s path, such as having that be a job through college or a hobby.
“[My son] did electronic media,” Hartsell said. “He loves making videos, he loves taking pictures, but it was kind of more, newscast-related related and that’s not what he wants to do. And so he realized this is more of a hobby, not something he wanted to do for a career.”
Others, like Junior Olivia Miller, find their passion in OTC.
“Nursing is like something you just can’t kind of like, you really have to love, you have to be passionate for it,” Miller said. “And honestly, yeah, like I, it’s like something I want to do.”
While being a junior, a student can get dual credit. It is the same for seniors as well. Dual credit is where a student can earn college credit at the same time as earning high school credit, which is an extra benefit towards higher knowledge and education.
Junior Olivia Miller is busy spending her time getting dual credit at OTC.
“You get dual credit,” Miller said. “So some of it you have like credit for the high school and then for the college part, you have those credits. I think it’s like seven credits we get per class. So by the end of it I should have like maybe 14 credits in the like college part.”
By the end of high school, a student can already be far into their college journey without ever even graduating from high school.
The OTC is located in Springfield, Missouri, and is a community college, if students are interested, communicate with the counselors to see how to join.
