Why the Academy structure is well suited for ex-industry professionals

Graduating with my Master’s degree in Geotechnical engineering was the final step in securing my future as an engineer. Soon after, I found a job in Memphis and began my time as an engineering intern. The job would provide me the exposure to managing technicians, developing designs for projects, writing reports, and the hundreds of other things that recent engineering grads attempt in their first job.  Fast forward 5 years and, because of opportunities for my wife, we relocated to Nashville.

Upon starting to hunt for jobs in early 2009, I realized that my engineering experience paled in comparison to other engineers looking for jobs. (Some other jobseekers I met had 15-20 years of experience). Armed with this information, I looked elsewhere for work. A conversation with my wife led me to try substitute teaching. Now, admittedly, I did not think it would turn into much more than a temporary position, but after going to the high school classrooms and seeing the isolated learning the students were experiencing, I became enticed by the idea of creating a better learning environment.

A year later I was the lead teacher of an engineering and architecture academy. With a team of 21 teachers, ranging from English to CTE and P.E. to Foreign Language, it felt very similar to managing engineering technicians on various job sites and designing solutions to problems. Now, granted, the problems were not structural building issues, but issues some might argue are foundational to solving more pressing problems than structural analysis. These similarities sparked conversations and even focus groups with other teachers about the success of occupationally licensed CTE teachers in the academy setting.

In short, an academy is a themed, smaller learning community within a school’s given population. In Metro Nashville, the majority of high schools are wall-to-wall academies, which means all students are in an academy of their choice within a high school. The real power of the academies comes from the identity that it allows the students to have as its members. This identity creates belonging and, ultimately, a responsibility for the academy that a 1500 to 2000 student school might not have.

The academy structure more closely represents a business with multiple divisions and departments working toward one goal – prepared graduates. I think this similarity to the business world is what makes it a perfect fit for ex-industry professionals. Their experience and educational backgrounds outside of education make them more equipped to facilitate learning without the “learned” teaching expectations of many traditional programs. Their industry knowledge of job expectations and work flows allows them to more fluidly transition students from school to careers than their non-industry professional counterparts.

So, if you are successful in a non-educational related career but would like a change and to change the lives of students, go to your local education agency and let your experience enrich the powerful career and technical education going on today!

By Adam Guidry, Lead Teacher, Academy of Environmental and Urban Planning, Glencliff High School, Nashville, TN