We serve 17,500 high school students from across our school district, and now also serve adults in our community with evening courses that prepare them for jobs in Nursing, Pharmacy, Aviation, and Manufacturing. Soon, by the end of 2026, we will offer additional evening courses in Welding and Veterinary care.
Our core group of interested students come from all walks of life, and includes those students who find traditional education methods disengaging. We also address the needs of our regional labor needs while helping students in the process of identity assumption: the time when they adopt the persona of a successful adult. With a focus on well-being, our students can be their authentic selves.
Dedicated to creating opportunity for all, our enrollment process is driven by an open lottery so that students can enroll regardless of income, grades, attendance or behavior.
Students come to us for approximately 25% of their high school year. We work with industry, community and higher education partners to best replicate authentic learning environments and challenges for students.
As just one example, one industry partner of our Advanced Manufacturing pathway came to us to make highly specific and technical parts for the cabling-switch boxes for satellite launches. Our students get to experience the authentic iterative conversation with a client resulting in a real product that is critical to get exactly right (and will be launched into space!)
We strive to provide as authentic an experience for student learning as possible, which is why, for example, our construction program builds five tiny homes each year that meet city/county code for a homeless community. Our Aviation program is the first high school program in the country offering FAA certifications to students in commercial drone piloting, private pilot ground school, and aviation mechanics.
We host over 250 tours of our campus each year so that school district and educational institutions can see what we're doing and how we are meeting the needs of our students. While about half of these tours are educational partners, the other half are industries, community organizations, governmental groups, and community members interested in seeing what we are doing.
Additionally, we travel as we can to learn from our peer institutions across the country as we look to grow and expand our work. Those trips have informed the work we are doing currently: running 15 pathways while also doing construction to add nine new pathways by August of 2026!
Finally, as we can, we share our work and successes/challenges to date at conferences, meetings, via social media, etc.
When we opened in 2019, we were the only campus in the US with the commitment and facilities to support this model of career technical education for all with industry as core partners. We are very proud to say that there are now dozens of campus around the United States that bear the same or similar model and now tens of thousands of students being successful in communities across the nation.
We have expanded from 7 to 16 pathways since 2019 and now are adding an additional 9 pathways in 2026. Initially serving just over 700 students in 2019, we are now enrolling over 2,400 for the fall of 2026.
Additionally, we have transitioned to a full lottery enrollment process as a part of our commitment to inclusion for all students.
Finally, we have opened multiple evening programs that serve ages from 16-60 in programs that span from healthcare to aviation to manufacturing!
Come visit! We host many tours where students are glad to share their learning and share how this model of education has enhanced their learning.
We often hear that visitors needed to see the CCIC to truly understand what we do here and visitors often wish this program was available to their own children, which we believe is the highest praise possible.
Come visit and see for yourself!
