What’s Right With Our Schools: Catoosa County’s From Here to Career Academy

RINGGOLD, GA (WDEF) – High School is an exciting and very busy time in a teenager’s life, but some students might be wondering, ‘How do I get from here to a career?’

In Catoosa County they have a wonderful new resource!

Marrissa Brower is the CEO of the From Here to Career Academy.

She says, “I am so excited to welcome you to our new college and Career Academy in Catoosa County. This is the From Here to Career Academy because we want every student to have the opportunity to either be prepared for post-secondary education or to enter the workforce.

Brower continues, “It just seems like yesterday when we were breaking ground for this building in October of 2022, and now it’s August 2023, and we have students in the building for the first time. This is our health science pathway at the From Here to Career Academy. So, you can see from this lab that students have an amazing opportunity to learn in truly a real-life setting. We are in the storage area for the criminal justice program, and we have a variety of opportunities for the teacher to give the students a comprehensive understanding of what the career in criminal justice entails. So, you can see we have the mannequins to teach CPR, the cones to set up crime scenes, the skeleton, and lots of additional equipment for them to get the real experience.

Alex Driscoll is the welding instructor.

He says, “So, here at the College and Career Academy, we teach high school welding program or high school students, and they’ll be earning college credit through Georgia Northwestern Technical College. We just hold them to a higher standard, and we have the equipment and everything we need to make them successful for the job industry. They want to do weld competitions or further their career in education.”

Keith Jones is the professional skills development teacher.

Keith says, ” We are the only school in the nation that’s providing a comprehensive two-year professional development and emotional intelligence training. So, we want to teach them how to balance their emotions with really some logical thinking and not let everything be emotion based in their life.

Marissa Brower concludes, ” Some students learn better in a project-based environment. So, the majority of our pathway students will be working with their hands, learning skilled trades, participating in health science and other professional careers. So we have an opportunity for every student herein Catoosa County to be successful, to graduate high school with college credit and credentials of value that will help them be successful for their next step after they graduate from our school system.”