Path to Success
Career tech and college readiness coordinator sets students up for success By Helen Widman
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any factors can influence a student’s future, such as extracurricular activities, test scores, individual goals and more. For students in Westerville, one of these lesser-known factors goes by the name of Anne Baldwin. Baldwin is a career tech and college readiness coordinator for Westerville City Schools. This role first came into existence seven years ago as a result of a grant from the state of Ohio’s Straight A Fund in 2014. One of Baldwin’s roles is to support the development and growth of the three career pathways for students in the district, which are engineering, business logistics and health. She also works with College Credit Plus, collaborates with a career center liaison and supports the school counselor team of grades six through 12. “I don’t directly advise students. I work with our staff to provide those career pathway options, and I work with our school counselors advising students around those pathways,” Baldwin says. “So, my role is really to connect business and industry with our curriculum teams to develop the classes (so) that we’re providing experiences in our classrooms that help students practice the skills and knowledge that they would need, and also provide the opportunity to do some career exploration.” Westerville City Schools requires a course on literacy skills and career exploration in just sixth grade. Those students can complete a career cluster inventory to gauge their interest in different career areas. In seventh grade, all students take an engineering and design course and a medical detective course. They have the opportunity to take other exploratory courses that year as well. The hope is that by the time the students reach high school, they have a clear idea of their interests and can choose to continue learning about a certain career path throughout high school. 22 September/October 2021
“For each pathway, there’s a series of high school courses that a student could potentially take all four years of high school,” Baldwin says, “and they can start as soon as their freshman year.” Students can gain college credit through Col- Blood draw lab at Westerville Central lege Credit Plus which is embedded in the pathways. Health path- cess hospital experiences as much as Seabury way students, for example, actually enroll and previous health pathway graduates, but in Columbus State Community College Baldwin says that they have been able to do courses that they take at their high school practice labs, such as drawing blood out of practice phlebotomy arms, instead. to earn college credit. Alex Borger, a 2020 Westerville North Kendel Seabury, a 2020 graduate of Westerville Central High School, is grad, completed the engineering pathway. currently a Columbus State student. In Borger now attends Bowling Green State high school, Seabury took the health University and is studying architecture. “I joined engineering because I thought pathway and graduated with 37 college credits. She plans to transfer to The Ohio I liked making houses and just making State University to study nursing after or designing stuff,” he says, “but I found completing two years at Columbus State. out … that’s actually architecture, which Seabury has worked at Nationwide is helpful because civil engineering, Children’s Hospital since she was a senior in architecture, made me realize that.” Like Borger, Eric Glasgow attended high school. She even earned a clinical lab certification through the health pathway in Westerville North on the engineering high school. Without the pathway program pathway and now studies architecture. and Baldwin, Seabury would likely not Glasgow is enrolled at Kent State University. He says that because of his experience have had these opportunities. “I work in a hospital lab, and I have in the engineering pathway he now feels he for over a year now. I’m 19 years old and is more familiar with the language, basic not everyone gets to do that,” she says. “I equations and norms that will give him a think it’s just really cool that in high school distinct advantage in a competitive field. “What I share with students all the time,” we got the opportunity to do things that really set us up for success in life, but also she says, “is this: ‘This is your opportunity in college. … I’m making so much money to explore, and things will change a lot, but as a college student working in a hospital we want to make sure that you have a path that you’re following and that you have and it’s really, really cool.” Seabury says that every interaction she’s the resources to know, when you want to had with Baldwin has been a positive one change that path, where you can go with it.’” – and it’s clear that Baldwin cares about the Helen Widman is a contributing writer. success of her students. Due to the pandemic, current health Feedback welcome at feedback@ pathway students have not been able to ac- cityscenemediagroup.com. www.westervillemagazine.com
