By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Joan Forburger believes she has "just about the best job in the entire world. I enjoy it very much."
The director of career and technical education for Lewis Cass Intermediate School District works with Cass County's four local school districts in Dowagiac, Cassopolis, Edwardsburg and Marcellus and Southwestern Michigan College "on all aspects of trying to get our young people some experiences with different careers."
Thursday she talked to the Cass County Board of Commissioners about career academies, "which is absolutely one of my favorite topics, by far."
The LCISD partners with SMC so students still in high school can attend their own high school a half day and college for half a day.
"These students all end up earning (college) credits before they ever graduate from high school," Forburger said. "We're really proud of that."
More than 70 students during the 2007-2008 academic year earned 1,192 credits before high school graduation.
The LCISD is the "umbrella" for this program.
"We make presentations to students, who go ahead and apply if they're interested in one of our programs," she said.
"This brochure goes out to every sophomore home in the county every single year. Dual enrollment means a student can go and take a class at SMC, but when a student takes an academy, it means they take a series of classes in one particular area, which means they really do have an opportunity to get a lot of credits in a particular type of career before they go on."
Forburger said grades are reviewed as part of the application process "because we don't want them to fail. It's so important for them to go to the college ready to do college work. We have a half-time career technical education counselor at the ISD who works with every single student and gets them signed up.
"Absolutely the best thing about this program is that the local districts are generous enough to pay all the tuition and all the books for these students," she said. "It is a fabulous opportunity for them to have a really good head start as far as their college careers are concerned."
In addition, Forburger said, the LCISD compiled a brochure for parents detailing new high school graduation requirements designed to prepare students for competition in the global market.
A new academy being added in the coming year is for emergency medical technicians (EMT). It will join manufacturing, health, human services and business academies.
Students provide their own transportation because "college classes usually have different schedules on Tuesdays and Thursdays than on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays," she said.
"They go right into regular college classes with other college students," Forburger said. "They really do have to be mature and learn to meet college requirements."