To give students the opportunity to dive deeper into possible career pathways and explore their interests, new classes are being offered.

The course catalog now includes classes such as Music 121: Music Appreciation and History of Pop Music, as well as School-based Enterprise for the Culinary and Fashion programs.

“[School-Based Enterprise: Fashion Studio] offers a great opportunity for students to expand on an existing skill set that we may not get to practice as much as part of the main curriculum,” Fashion Design teacher Levi Harbeson said. “A couple [of] weeks ago, we did repairs for some chair covers that were for a kindergarten class, down at Steele Elementary.”

Students in this class will build school spirit by allowing other students to commission clothing pieces that will showcase patchwork.

“The students will be working on developing patches that will eventually be sewn onto Letterman sweaters for our school to help promote school spirit,” Harbeson said. “We will sew on individual patches that are designed for different clubs, organizations, or sports. They’ll help advertise what Southwest Career and Technical Academy is.” 

Specifically in School-Based Enterprise: Culinary Arts, students are given chances to make professional advancements in their program area.

“I thought it would be a cool experience to make more connections with industry professionals because we go to competitions,” senior Addison Marsh said. “There have been people who have been offered jobs on the spot in the competitions.”

Adding on, the new culinary enterprise class will have students plan and develop future restaurant concepts.

“Designing a restaurant concept can really be a hugely creative tool for them to kind of just find their passion more in culinary arts and understand,” Chef Kimberly Bakke said. “I really just think that it gives so much background to everything we’re doing- it makes it start to make sense.”

On the other hand, the new Dual Enrollment Music 121 course, will focus on helping students gain an understanding of the foundations that make up modern-day practices. Prior to this, the only music or auditory arts based class that had been offered was orchestra.

“Music is kind of a universal language. It’s something everybody likes and listens to,” Music Appreciation and History teacher Michael Woxland said. ”Understanding kind of where it comes from and how we got to the music that we listen to today, that’s pretty cool.”

Teachers hope students take an interest in what these classes have to offer and decide to enroll in them next year.

“I’m excited to see what word of mouth does for this class,” Woxland said. “Hopefully they like what we’re doing and they tell their friends that it’s a fun class and it’s worthwhile.”