DUBLIN, Ga. — Dublin City Schools are celebrating some record-high results in the hallways.
Their College and Career Academy has specialized classes — or pathways — for students to take.
At Dublin High School, they have a program for their students called "The WAY", which stands for Workforce Accelerating Youth.
Last semester's End of Pathway exams showed how future-focused they are, and these students say they're ready to be in a career they love.
From cosmetology to food science, the students at Dublin High School are said to be training for jobs that are needed in Central Georgia.
Dublin High School's 11 career academy classes range from agriculture to nursing. According to the results, the students taking agriculture, cosmetology, criminal justice and food science classes had a 100% pass rate for the second semester in a row.
Ben Lanier is the CEO and director of Dublin High School's Career Academy.
"Our students really see the value in this jumpstarting their careers," Lanier said. "We're actually training students for jobs that don't exist yet, so we have to have that progressive mindset that we're preparing these kids to enter the workforce."
Lanier says there's about 1/3 of the high school, or around 200 students, that are in a pathway class. About 60% percent of students immediately enter the workforce after graduation.
"This gives students a tangible industry-recognized credential that they can put into their career portfolios they can put with their resume to take to employers locally, regionally, across the country, and they can say they have a baseline knowledge in this that makes them more marketable and easier to hire than their peers," he said.
Lea Jarriel is a senior at Dublin High School, and she chose the nursing pathway.
"I just think the program itself is great," Jarriel said. "Dublin High School's one of the only schools that I know of that actually offers a healthcare pathway within the school system itself. It definitely has helped me to advance in my knowledge of the medical field."
Jarriel said she's inspired by healthcare workers and wants to help take care of her community. She said the hands-on experience within the classes are both accurate to real-world problems and helpful for her future.
"Just seeing the way that they work and how good of care they take of somebody just inspired me because I want to be the person to take care of someone that same way," Jarriel said.
Derick McRae is a senior on the food science pathway.
He said he might not see himself in the food industry in the future, but his classes taught him about leadership and communication.
"It's really fun," McRae said. "I actually like cooking. I like working with the FCCLA classes and FFA."
McRae said the food industry-specific classes made him realize Dublin needs more restaurants and businesses to boost the economy.
"It does give me a little edge with my resume," McRae said. "Because I already had experience in this area, I've already been doing this stuff and been doing it since high school, I can say that it puts me ahead a little bit."
Dublin High School says this is just the beginning. Their goal is to have a 100% End of Pathway pass rate for Spring 2024.