LYNN — Lynn Vocational Technical Institute is on its best behavior this week as it plays host to nearly 1,000 visiting eighth graders who are contemplating a future at the school.
“We have huge momentum here and we want it to keep going,” said Principal Diane Paradis.
Paradis said the School Department is required to make the school available to students but there was no real coordinated event in the past. The three-day school tour day is now in its third year.
Friday had Breed Middle School students touring shop classes and hearing from instructors and students about the virtues of the school. Monday students from Marshall Middle School will get the same treatment followed by Pickering and Fecteau-Leary middle schools on Tuesday.
Lynn Tech has seen its enrollment jump significantly over the last two years. Paradis said they accepted 250 students for the current year, wait listed 60 and ended up with 236.
“Last year we had 160,” she said.
She credits her staff with promoting the school and the fact that academically speaking Lynn Tech is on the same playing field as Classical and English high schools.
“We’ve coordinated our curriculum to match English and Classical,” she said. “We’ve added AP (Advance Placement) courses ”¦ our co-op program is soaring and we’ve added a summer component to the program.”
She said the public seems to have gotten the message that Lynn Tech can compete.
The eighth grade tour event is not unlike a college tour. Students hit most of the shop classes in the main building before heading over to the annex where students and administrators manned skirted tables representing every shop the school has to offer.
Paradis said she wanted the event to have a professional feel because they are in the business of training students to be professionals.
“It’s the same professionalism that will be expected of them,” she said.
During her greeting Paradis warned prospective students that Tech is not a place where they can “slide by, slack off and spend half their time in shop.” There are demands and students must work hard to meet them, she said.
Carpentry Instructor Ed Hutchinson told students that every shop program is three years of intensive study. It seems overwhelming but students rotate through every shop during their first year and don’t pick a field of study until the end of their freshman year.
Electrical Instructor Jason Hennessey warned students to work hard and do well in all the shops during the exploratory year.
“The one who gets first choice is the one who does well in all the shops,” he said. “Even if it’s cosmetology, guys, even if you don’t like metal fabrication, girls.”
Both men also touted the financial possibilities with choosing Tech.
“Making $100,000 a year is not uncommon for a tradesman if you work hard,” Hennessy said.
Hutchinson said a student coming out of Tech can make $24 to $26 an hour in carpentry with solid benefits.
LVTI senior Zachary Gillette said he wouldn’t hesitate to encourage students to apply to Tech.
“You come here and you learn a trade,” he said. “Have a trade and you have it made.”
Derick Sean, a senior in the auto mechanic program, agreed.
“I came to Tech not knowing what I wanted to do, I was lost,” he said. “I went through the exploratory rotation and I found a passion.”
Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].
