ELHS’ pathway program is not a single entity, but a term for supporting student exploration into community programs and trade-focused career skills. Assistant principal and Pathways Coordinator David Fasulo added Cyber Security and Military Vehicle Repair pathways to the district’s array of eight successful career pathways including welding, Electric Boat engineering, and others.ELHS’ pathway program is not a single entity, but a term for supporting student exploration into community programs and trade-focused career skills. Assistant principal and Pathways Coordinator David Fasulo added Cyber Security and Military Vehicle Repair pathways to the district’s array of eight successful career pathways including welding, Electric Boat engineering, and others.
“We are working to shift what classes will look like over the next five years to meet student interests in terms of career and trade, and I see the pathways gaining interest so quickly as more reason for that,” Mr. Fasulo said.
EL’s pathway programs and Learning Through Interest class, which is designed to connect students with local internships and apprenticeships, has been so successful CT’s Department of Education has noted the unusually high number of student hires to prospective businesses. To share EL’s route to post-secondary success with other districts, Mr. Fasulo and Superintendent Jeff Newton will present at state- wide conferences about how EL cultivated its pathway programs. The cyber security pathway consisted of four sessions, each an hour-long, at Camp Nett in Niantic. Students were introduced to the basics of password protection and stopping cyber criminals by Joel Fulsang, a cyber security expert at the National Guard.
The instructors volunteer their time to teach for no cost to the district or students. For the cyber security program, a $20 deposit was asked of students and returned in full if the student attended each class.
“My goal is to connect every department with community partnerships and integrate pathways into as many classes as we can,” Mr. Fasulo said.
His upcoming goals include running more cyber security classes for a longer time so students can get more in-depth with the ideas and partake in national “capture the flag” events where teams of students use their security analytic skills to hack into each other’s programs. He also hopes to connect the creative writing class with a local publishing firm.
“The LTI class is great. I got involved with an HVAC company and now I have a great job with them and over 500 apprentice hours and I’m getting class credit for it, too,” senior Lotus Schwartz said.
