St. Dominic has always been a successful college preparatory school giving students the right mindsets and opportunities to succeed at the college level. However, they decided to make a change to set students up for different paths. Last year they created a new trades center, giving students that may not want to go on the college route the opportunity to learn about the trades and harness their skills.
The trades center has been in use all school year both as a workout room and the typical trades center for students who enrolled in the special trades classes. Now, the building officially opened with a blessing from the archbishop and a ribbon cutting.
President Jim Welby and Principle Stacy Stewart were in attendance along with other members of the staff, and even students that take part in the trades program were given the opportunity to attend the event.
”It was a good time being at the event, it felt very official and it was cool seeing everyone there at once,” junior Austin Collins said.
Creating the trades center began well before construction started, the school started sending out forms three years ago looking to gather information on what trades students would be interested in.
Faculty and administrators toured other trade schools in the area, trying to decide if the trades would be an off campus course or if they would put something on campus. The school decided eventually that it would be best if they put the trades center on campus and began construction.
With the addition of the trades center St.Dominic has only improved the value of their education and what they can bring to their students and community.
“We think it would be valuable to give those parents and students who come to St.Dominic wanting the opportunity to get that Catholic education, to get the opportunity to learn and benefit from those trade courses,” St. Dominic Principal Stacy Stewart said.
The trades program at St.Dominc will continue to improve, with more trades coming to the program in the coming years. The trades center has been a great success so far for the school and the ribbon cutting ceremony was a crowning moment of a great achievement for the St. Dominic community.
