0423 MPS-v3 - Flipbook - Page 4
Becoming
College and
Career Ready
Mentor Public Schools provides unique opportunities
to help high school students jumpstart their futures
F
or many teens, thinking about
where they want life to lead
doesn’t happen until graduation is near. But juniors and seniors attending Mentor High School have the
chance to jumpstart their futures in one
of 24 Career Technical Education (CTE)
programs offered through the district’s
Lake Shore Compact.
Serving Mentor, Euclid and Wickliffe school districts, the consortium
was formed to help eliminate — the
widening technical skills gap that exists throughout Ohio’s workforce.
The goal is to prepare pupils to enter
a four-year college, two-year technical
school or a career. Students apply to the
CTE program as sophomores and begin
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Mentor Public Schools / Spring 2023
taking classes at the start of their junior
year. In 2024, courses will be expanded
to include CTE electives for freshmen
and sophomore students. Mentor High
serves as the fiscal CTE lead for the three
school districts.
“Career tech programs have been
offered in our district for more than
30 years,” says Dr. Joe Glavan, director
of the Lake Shore Compact. “But as the
demand for skilled workers increases,
we’ve seen a renewed emphasis on career
education — specifically as it applies
to providing students with industryrecognized credentials and skill sets.
We’ve expanded our program to meet the
demands of local employers — as well as
the students in our school district.”
Visit lakeshorecompact.org
to learn more about the
variety of programs that are
available to help students
jumpstart their careers.
The interest continues to uptick: This
year, more than 500 students applied
for admission to a CTE program —
including 44% of sophomores at Mentor
High School. Currently, 36% of juniors
and seniors are enrolled.
“Those numbers are a new record
for us,” Glavan says. “Typically, school
districts see a participation rate of 10%
to 12%.”
Additionally, 2022 graduates enrolled
in CTE programs collectively had the
opportunity to earn 3,622 collegearticulated credits.
“As I navigate my way through high
school, I didn’t know what I wanted to
do after graduation. While I had certain
interests and hobbies, there wasn’t
anything that stood out to me as a future
career,” say Evie Megery, a Mentor High
School senior who is participating in the
school’s CTE marketing and business
administration (MBA) program. “I
thought it would be a great way to try
