Denver metro area school district adds opportunities to explore high-demand careers this fall

A school district in the Denver metro area is adding more opportunities for students to explore career pathways in high-demand jobs.

Thanks to voters passing a 2024 bond, Cherry Creek School District's former IST building underwent a renovation to transform into a college and career preparedness school. The building, now known as Pathways at Overland, is tucked on the same campus as Overland High School and Prairie Middle School.

When the building officially opens this fall, there will be seven new programs offered, many of which are in high-demand fields. Cary Reed, the Assistant Principal at Pathways at Overland, said there's also a waitlist for many of the programs.

"Part of the process was finding out what's going to be relevant for students in this building and in this community, and at Cherry Creek as a whole. So, we did a community survey, and we came up with the most passionate programs," said Reed.

Among the new pathways are criminal justice and law, culinary, technology pathways such as computer science, engineering, graphic design, and video production, and health and wellness, including sterile processing and surgical technicians.

"Inside of the health programs, we have patient care tech, phlebotomy, and EKG, and then we also have a two year program with medical assisting, which is, if you imagine going to the doctor's office, the person who checks you in takes you to the back office, does your injection, takes your blood," said Reed. "All of these courses are running through the local community colleges, so we're partnered with Community College of Aurora and Front Range Community College."

At the campus, students will get real world skills and experience. When they graduate, they'll also receive industry certifications along with their diploma.

Spaces like this are empowering students and preparing them for college and careers.

"Outside of the traditional offerings in school, we're finding that students really are gravitating to what their passion might be," said Reed. "This prepares students to go straight from here into the workforce, getting those certifications with concurrent enrollment through our industry partners."

The pathways are accessible to Overland High School students and students across the district.

Pathways also help students and families save money. The district says on average, students will save $855 annually when taking three concurrent enrollment courses.

As a student voice of Overland High School covering school events, Allison Terry and her classmates moved into the brand-new space at Pathways at Overland in January. She is a producer for OTV, the broadcast journalism channel for Overland High School, where they also do the announcements.

"We cover sporting events, performing arts, you name it," said Terry. "Walking into the space for the first time, it was unbelievable. We have never had a classroom this big that could actually fit all of us and our equipment."

Aries Jamison, a sophomore at the high school, designed the logo for the new building.

"The leaves represent the different types of paths students would like to take," said Aries.

She also plans to pursue a pathway at the campus.

"Hopefully [I] can get to law. I've always wanted to do it since I was in elementary school. I've always found it something challenging," said Aries.

Not only is opening Pathways at Overland an exciting opportunity for students like Aries and Allison, but it's also a jumpstart in their careers.

Allison added she's looking forward to leading the class next year, editing and producing stories weekly.

"I would never have known what I wanted to do with my life if it wasn't for OTV. I am so thankful for this program and everything it's done for me," said Allison.

For more information about Pathways at Overland, click here.