Every day at 12:05 pm, students board a bus at NASH or get into their cars to travel to the A.W. Beattie Career Center to further their education under teaching unavailable at NASH. A brief 5.3 miles away, A.W. Beattie Tech is offering programs in culinary arts, cosmetology, early childhood education, veterinary sciences, and much more. 

Junior, Anna Miklos, attends Beattie’s culinary arts program. She has been doing so since her sophomore year and has always had a love for cooking.

“Growing up, I always had adults telling me I had a career in it,” said Miklos, “When I did my first year, I competed in a menu planning competition and loved it.”  

Learning to cook was not the only thing Beattie has taught Miklos.

“We learn cooking techniques as well business and leadership techniques that come with working in the culinary field,” she said. “It has aided me in getting jobs already, and I am only in my second year. I am also the current president of the afternoon classes chapter’s FCCLA group.”  

Tom Barrante is a senior at NASH and attends Beattie’s AD design program. His girlfriend told him about Beattie a couple of years ago, and since he has always been passionate about art, he decided to join.

“I have always been in love with art and have continued to work hard improving my designing skills,” he said.

Beattie has also given Barrante many opportunities that may not be possible within the walls of NASH.

“I’ve gotten to learn more skills this year alone,” he said. “I’ve also gotten help from my amazing teacher to learn about scholarship opportunities for college. We are also able to get our Adobe certifications, which is important for the graphic design field.” 

For NASH senior Alyson Ogden, Beattie was a head start. She joined A.W. Beattie’s veterinary science program to gain experience with the equipment Beattie has to offer.

“I’ve always wanted to work with animals ever since I was little, so the program was a perfect fit for me,” Ogden said. “At Beattie we do a lot of different things. We learn about all the body systems in animals, basic anatomy, and directional terms.”

Ogden is an animal lover, and being able to interact with animals is a big part about what made Beattie so appealing to her.

“My favorite part about attending Beattie is definitely the animals that are brought in for lab days,” she said. “Lab days are where we have dogs brought in to do physical exam forms on them along with basic grooming, like baths and toenail trims.”

NASH junior Jordan Ashbaugh chose Beattie’s early childhood education program because it correlated with her aspirations to be an early elementary school teacher. Beattie has also given Ashbaugh the opportunity to get certified in CPR, first aid, and in the use of a fire extinguisher, allowing her to get a head start on her future.

“I can get a job at Kiddie Tech without having to do many certifications,” she said.

Attending an A.W. Beattie influences a student’s schedule. According to Ashbaugh, “It makes it so you have to have all your academics in the morning.”

Junior Blaise Husek began in Beattie’s Advertising and Design program when he was in tenth grade.

“My mom and my brother both recommended A. W. Beattie Career center after seeing my brother’s experience in the robotics class,” said Husek. 

The Advertising and Design program teaches so much in addition to the basics of advertising.

“We also learn how to implement video design, animation and traditional media as well as learning industry standard software, such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop,” he added. 

Like everything else in this modern world, A.W. Beattie has gained a few stereotypes over the years. Whether they are positive or negative, the best place to get the truth is from Beattie students themselves.  

“There are a lot of bad assumptions about Beattie that are false,” Barrante said. “But one true assumption is that you’re able to get college credits for free in high school. If you go into college, you’ll already have experience in the field you’re applying for and be more likely to get accepted in comparison with students who don’t go that route.”  

Even though it may look like a great opportunity to leave school early and get out of class, that is far from the truth.

“I think people assume Beattie kids only do it to skip class. I think this is mostly untrue because Beattie is actually hard work.” says Miklos.                                           

Ogden added, “Beattie is a great way to get a jump on the career path you want to go down in the future. They have so many different types of programs, and you have such a good relationship with the teachers and kids from other schools.”