WEST JORDAN — Students graduating from high school in Jordan School District may leave with more than simply a diploma. Many will have experience in veterinary work, dental assistance or physical therapy.
Those are a few of the programs available to high school students at the new Jordan Applied Technology Center West Jordan Campus, which officially opened Thursday.
Classes at the center, which is on the Salt Lake Community College Jordan Campus, began in late January just after the building construction was complete. Jordan District held an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to celebrate the opening of the center.
Principal Scott Olsen said the center has about 200 to 225 students who have enrolled since the building's completion this year.
"We look to double that for our fall enrollment," he said. "We want to give those students the opportunity to be out here and hone their skills."
The programs available at the West Jordan campus include biotechnology, training to become a dental assistant, medical assistant, pharmacy technician, physical therapy/rehabilitation and veterinary assistant/technician. The physical therapy center will eventually be a working rehabilitation office where students can work on-site with doctors and see patients.
Brenton Howland, a junior at Alta High School, and Cody Hatt, a junior at Riverton High School, both say they have been planning for some time to become veterinarians. Their participation in labs at the tech center has helped solidify their decision and give them a taste of what it will be like.
"We can do surgery on our own animals, like spay and neuter them," Howland said.
The students have learned how to draw blood and prepare food for animals in the lab, which include rabbits, turtles, birds and gerbils. They also spend time at local animal clinics.
Within about a year both Howland and Hatt will be able to earn veterinary technician licenses.
Tricia Lyon, a senior at West Jordan High School who is in the dental assistant program, says the classes save students time and money by helping them to decide on a career path before they begin their studies at the college level and start paying college tuition.
"It helps you decide what you want to do," she said.
Lyon says she plans to continue her education in the field of dental hygiene after high school. She and her peers at the tech center have been learning how to suction, clean and polish teeth and complete patient chart work. The students also work at dental offices and complete internships while still in high school. The program helps students wanting to study in a dental assistant program at Salt Lake Community College to bypass the waiting list for the program, she said.
The district chose the programs at the tech center because of the high demand for workers in health science fields, Olsen said.
Though some students will get four-year or graduate degrees in the fields they study at the tech center, others may decide to study something else at a university level. But their training will still give them enough experience and skills to have a job that puts them through college, Olsen said.
"We don't want to train them in an area where there aren't job opportunities out there," Olsen said.
Students who go through the tech center programs can earn certificates of competency and some can take the State Office of Education Skills Certification Test or board exams in their field. In most instances students will be able to earn both high school and college credits for the courses.
E-mail: ehayes@desnews.com