Students already accepted to Assabet Valley’s Class of 2020 have clearly shown that they have vision when it comes to choosing an engineering career path. The school Lecture Hall was full of new students and parents as Chuck DuPont, the lead engineering teacher, explained the opportunities, scheduling options, college credit potential, benefits, and, yes, even some perks, associated with following the four year Engineering Academy program that started three years ago at the tech school.
“Over a decade ago, we brought in the nationally acclaimed Project Lead the Way engineering classes, and had several of our teachers nationally certified to teach them. From there, we grew to what we have today, the Engineering Academy, linking college level engineering academic classes, technical programs that lead to engineering careers, extracurricular STEM programs and STEM field trips, all combined to let our students, our best of the best, to graduate with one more certification. They graduate with their diploma, their technical program Certificate of Proficiency, and now, with an Engineering Academy certificate as well. Along the way, since we have teachers who are also adjunct professors with New Hampshire Technical Institute, for just $150, they can also acquire three transcripted, transferrable, college credits that are theirs forevermore for each of three of our engineering courses offered. It is no wonder that for the last several years, our Valedictorians have all been engineering students! Colleges recognize the Project Lead the Way programs and student applications with those designations float right to the top of the pile,” explained Dupont.
Nolan Gerrans, an incoming freshman from Marlborough, was present with his mother, Alexandra Gerrans. “This program gives him one more reason to want to come to school every day, to think more, to do more. It is something more than the ordinary. He’s always been very good at math and science, so this is perfect for him,” commented his mother. “I’ve already joined the robotics team and have been coming to the summer meetings,” added Gerrans.
