Our speakers today were Mindy Handberg and Michael Werner, who serve as Community Involvement Coordinators for Mounds View High School and Irondale High School respectively. They spoke about the district's very successful "Career Pathways" program, which has created curriculum and other opportunities for students who are not interested in going on to pursue a 2 or 4 year college degree, but instead wish to aim toward specific work opportunities in industry or healthcare. The evolution of this program began with input from the community which spoke to the need for this alternative career path. The school district then had to update their career and technical courses and build partnerships with building trade groups, industry and post-secondary educational institutions. Some of the course work areas now offered are: Construction and Solar Energy, Digital Electronics, Automotive Technology, Introduction to Engineering Design and "How to Make Almost Anything". Also now through the U.S. Department of Labor, high school students are actually able to obtain paid internships "on the manufacturing floor", which gives them the ability to learn how to work with manufacturing machines, most of which are very high tech. Currently about 30% of our high school students in the district do not go on to 2 or 4 year degree programs, so there is a significant population of kids who can now benefit from this innovative program.