The Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School and Frontier Regional High School were both awarded state grants to develop Innovation Pathways early career programs for students.
The state launched these programs in 2017 to help students develop knowledge and skills related to a chosen field of study before they graduate high school. Many of the early career programs are in STEM-related fields, including advanced manufacturing, information technology, environmental and life sciences, health care and social assistance, and business and finance, according to a press release.
The Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School was awarded $20,000 to develop career pathways for students in information technology, business and health services.
“This planning grant is one of the first steps in developing the program,” said Greg Runyan, the school’s principal and director of teaching and learning. “What we’re planning this year is the work … we are at the infancy of planning stages.”
Runyan said the Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School is in a great position with this program because its programs can extend statewide because students don’t have to physically be in a classroom.
“We envision being able to offer courses in those disciplines to students that are enrolled with GCVS,” Runyan said. “We are statewide and we will be looking to connect and partner with various groups across the state.”
Runyan said the program will consist of classes revolving around the industries and an “element of internship.”
“With the flexible virtual model, it might suit the needs of students across Massachusetts,” Runyan said. “You’re doing online courses in those disciplines … one of the things that we are exploring is internship opportunities with those.”
Frontier Regional High School received $18,725 from the state to begin planning courses in manufacturing and health care.
Frontier Director of Secondary Education Sarah Mitchell said the new programs being implemented intend to help students in “planning for careers beyond high school, two-year college and four-year college.”
“It’s very exciting. It means students can take classes in high school and have a path to continue on post high school,” Mitchell said in a phone interview. “The exciting part of the grant is that we are in conversation with Pelican Inc.”
Mitchell said there is interest in the student body for both health care and manufacturing and they are hoping to expand on their practical courses.
“There’s a fairly good amount of students interested in these pathways … we’re hoping to tap into that population,” Mitchell said. “We’re really looking forward it it. We have a lot of AP offerings and we’re looking to expand our pragmatic skill offerings.”
Mitchell said the school is planning a field trip to Pelican, a company in South Deerfield that designs and manufactures high-performance protective cases and advanced lighting systems, for students interested in manufacturing jobs. The school’s health club attracted 12 members to its first meeting and around 12 to 15 more are planning to attend the second.
Like Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School, Frontier is also looking at an internship portion of its Innovations Pathway programming, but Mitchell said she is hopeful more businesses in the community will reach out to the school to create more opportunities.
“We’re in pretty good shape for internships,” Mitchell said. “We’re excited to talk to community partners about developing these internships.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.