Innovative learning

Historic school revived for career training

Haley Wilson’s interest in cybersecurity began after she learned computer coding. “I realized how many jobs you can get with cybersecurity,” the high school student from Goshen says. “I plan on going into the military, and I know that cybersecurity is a really big job in the military.”

Wilson is a computer science student at the Academy Street Career Innovation Center in Troy, which opened for its first year of classes in August.

Renovations transformed the historic Academy Street High School into a place where students learn mechatronics, aerospace engineering, computer science, public safety and linework.

Wilson is thrilled to learn more about the career she hopes to pursue.

“Now I will have some knowledge when I do go into the military,” Wilson says. “It’s a very great opportunity for a lot of students who want to go into certain things like cybersecurity, coding or whatever computer job they may want to go into.”

Historic partnership

The Academy Street school’s history dates back to the early 1920s.

The school, once known as Troy Junior High School, was renamed Academy Street High School in 1941, the same year its first senior class graduated. Fire destroyed the school in 1946, and the brick building now housing the innovation center was opened in 1948. The school graduated its final class in 1970.

A grant allowed for the Academy Street Career Innovation Center — a $15.5 million project — to become reality. Local industries, including South Alabama Electric Cooperative, have contributed resources to the center to support the educational and work skills programs.

Academy Street Principal and Director Casey Moore says future plans involve a health science wing with simulators and a two-story culinary arts building. The culinary program will include catering and a working diner staffed by students learning about the restaurant and hospitality industries.

Academy Street’s partners include Troy City Schools, Pike County Schools and Dale County Schools, as well as the city of Troy and Enterprise State Community College. The city has a community liaison, Willie B. Williams Jr., working at the school, as well as a number of city departments with offices in the building and employees who work directly to teach students in areas like public safety and linework.

The innovation center is similar in concept to Pike County Schools’ Center for Advanced Academics and Accelerated Learning and the Troy-Pike Center for Technology. In fact, Pike County’s programs in mechatronics, aerospace and computer science have been moved to Academy Street, joining the new electrical lineworker and criminal justice programs.

“A lot of people are doing career tech, but we’re doing it a little bit differently,” Moore says. “I think being so connected to our community is what makes this really cool.”

Beyond hands-on learning

Along with the hands-on career skills students gain, they are also learning soft skills like communication and problem solving.

Students receive training to become ambassadors for the center, greeting visitors with a welcoming handshake. The lessons are reinforced at every bus drop-off when Moore and Williams greet arriving students. There are plans to have students tour local industries, as well as have speakers visit the center every Friday to help connect students to the community even more.

“We find in talking to these kids a lot of times they’re just not sure what their options are,” Moore says. “So, we’re going to take them out into the industry and let them see what the options are and let them see what life is like in those workforce fields.”

The center also provides financial literacy and interview skills. The goal, Moore says, is not only that students are employable but also grounded and successful in their daily lives.

“We want them to stay here and work and be successful and contribute back to the community,” Moore says.

But beyond helping students build career skills or find career paths, Academy Street is focused on what the community needs within its workforce, she says.

The center’s mechatronics program has received the most interest, Moore says. Mechatronics combines mechanical engineering, electronics and computer science to create automated systems.

“What we really try to do is focus on the needs of our community,” Moore says. “We know that a lot of our local industries and factories really focus on those mechatronics students. They need as many of them as we can produce. The city of Troy is one of our partners, and they’re saying they really need people coming out of these public safety programs, so we put in public safety programs. That’s driving what we do, the requests of our local industry.”