English, math, science, and social studies may be familiar to most people, but several other classes help students find their interests and prepare for their future careers.
Susan Howard teaches several business classes at West, including Advanced Marketing. Howard said that this class could be beneficial to many people, even those not interested in business.
One of the Advanced Marketing classes is Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Howard said that the class goes into more detail about what is taught in Marketing 101, including the four concepts of marketing. “Product, place, price, and promotion,” Howard said.
The Advanced Marketing class is also more involved in DECA which Howard said is an association of marketing students.
“Students can choose a category and master, whether it’s hotel and restaurant management or more in the service industry or more general marketing. Then they take a test and do role plays at competitions,” Howard said.
Advanced marketing students take DECA a step further and do projects that they take to competition.
Howard said that the Advanced Marketing class would be beneficial to many students.
“Students who have any interest in owning a business in their future should take marketing classes. A lot of people steer away from it because they’re not interested in going into business. No matter what your degree path is, you need to know how to market yourself,” Howard said.
Even if the career is unrelated to business, marketing may still be beneficial.
“It’s very good if you want to be a doctor, if you want to own a beauty salon, if you want to be a car mechanic then you need to know how to market yourself. It does a really good job of getting students out of their comfort zone and being able to publicly speak,” Howard said.
Howard said that Marketing is a fun class, but also involves work. “It’s certainly not a blow-off class by any means. However, it is something that is very applicable to whatever it is that you want to pursue. It builds self confidence and we have a good time,” Howard said.
Amanda Jeffries teaches several FACS classes at West including Interior Design. This class may help prepare students for careers in design.
The Interior Design class focuses on designing residential housing interiors, but they discuss several other principles of interior design.
“We talk about color harmony and color principles and elements of interior design,” Jeffries said.
They also talk about working with clients, and how to work with clients that may think differently from you.
One of the main projects in Interior Design is designing a client’s home. Jeffries said at that at the beginning of the class the students get to create their own clients for the home they are designing. They get to make up who the people are and what they like in a home.
Jeffries said that this class is beneficial for those that enjoy working with others and even those that have an artistic side.
“If you think you might have a little interest in it, take it now in high school. That’s what high school should be about. It should be about you trying classes, and learning that you love that topic, or maybe you hate that topic, and that’s fine,” Jeffries said.
Susie Humphreys teaches Athletic Training and Essentials of First Aid at West. This class may be beneficial to those looking into the healthcare field.
The class begins with talking about different careers in healthcare, but students learn a lot more.
“We do a lot of anatomy and physiology. You can’t really talk about injuries if you don’t understand the anatomy of the body. They get CPR and AED certified. We go through a fairly generic first aid curriculum but then they will learn taping techniques for elbow, wrist, fingers, ankle,” Humphreys said.
Along with taping techniques, students learn splinting techniques. They also talk about emergency plans. They learn “how to get a student that’s traumatically injured off the field quickly,” Humphreys said.
Something new in the curriculum is trauma care. “We teach them how to use tourniquets, how to pack wounds, how to use webbing to move somebody,” Humphreys said.
Learning trauma and wound care may be beneficial for several careers. Humphreys said that the class would be beneficial to those interested in being a fireman, EMT, orthopedic surgeon, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, or anyone interested in the healthcare field.
Humphreys said that it is a fun class that does involve work, but students gets hands on experience and experience with studying in the healthcare field.
Larry Whittlesey teaches Civil Engineering and Architecture at West. This class may be beneficial to those interested in design and engineering.
“It is preliminary to get young people interested in those two fields of engineering- architectural and civil engineering, but it does touch a little on the other types of engineers,” Whittlesey said.
In this class, students get hands on practice with designing at home from the ground up.
“They learn how to do the drawings. They learn how to do the basics of plumbing, electrical, and the things that go into the house. On the civil engineering, side they learn a commercial project where they have to take an old building and rehabilitate it to a useful building,” Whittlesey said.
This is a weighted class, and there is a possibility in receiving college credit for the class, but it depends on majors.
Whittlesey said that this class is a lot of work, but can be a lot of fun too.
From marketing, interior design, first aid training, and engineering, there are several classes at West that can be beneficial to students in planning careers. Taking these classes may help students prepare for their futures and find what interests them.
