For most students, their daily schedule doesn’t span too much distance. One might have to walk between the 500 hall and the 700 hall, which is a trek nobody likes to make, but that’s the farthest a typical schedule will stretch.
Some students, however, don’t even spend their days on campus. Junior Rowan Lloyd spends her mornings in Blue Valley’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS), participating in their nursing program.
For a student who knows what they want to do professionally, but only vaguely, the CAPS programs can offer insight into the career opportunity and assist in those important decisions.
“I want to be a nurse,” Lloyd said. “I don’t know what type yet.”
Not only do these courses serve as classes and teach students the content of the field, they allow students the opportunity to get hands-on experience in the real world of their chosen professional path.
Lloyd has known she wants to be a nurse for a while, but through CAPS she’s “excited for the shadowing” opportunities that she can utilize through the program.
Alternatively, students can choose to be dual-enrolled in both Blue Valley and Johnson County Community College (JCCC), such as senior Tanner McCoy, who only has two classes at BV.
“I have Honors Latin IV and Teacher’s Aide for Mr. Mowry,” McCoy said. “I have five classes at JCCC, [including] Organic Chemistry I and Calculus III.”
Through the college’s Dual Enrollment Associates Program, McCoy not only takes classes at JCCC but can also enjoy all the non-academic opportunities offered to full-time students as well. Within the first couple weeks of classes at JCCC, McCoy said he has been “meeting all sorts of new people in clubs, classes and on campus.”
Whereas CAPS provided Lloyd with exploratory opportunities, McCoy pursued the dual enrollment program with college and career goals already in mind.
“I chose this route assuming I would go to school at KU because they had a really good computer science program,” McCoy said. “Now I stay in the program to pursue advanced math and chemistry courses.”
Even with the daunting concept of being a true college student, the program still allows for quite a bit of flexibility, as McCoy “originally enrolled in the cyber security program,” but shifted focus when he “realized [he] didn’t like computers enough to continue.”
Both options provide fresh opportunities for students to explore career fields and future academic pathways, and while some students deem one a better fit than others, both are equally beneficial in gaining the experience necessary for that student.
Lloyd and McCoy expressed excitement about the opportunities ahead of them and attested to enjoying their respective choices thus far.
“It has been extremely enjoyable,” McCoy said. “It gave me a lot more freedom.”
