About 34 Greene County High School students completed at least one strain this school year in the career academy.

One of those students is junior Hallie Monthei. She finished the new education strain because some family members are in education and her personal interest in being a teacher. Monthei talks about the experiences she got to have through the career academy that she would not have been able to do without it.

“So one opportunity that we get is to be in the classroom and through that I have learned just the love of kids and watching them grow. And so that has inspired my love to be a teacher and to want to be a teacher, especially when I get to be one in two years instead of an extra four.”   

Monthei adds that she ended this year with 36 college credits and will have her associates degree completed with Iowa Central Community College before she graduates high school next year. She then plans to attend Iowa State University where she will be considered a junior with 64 credits.

Olivia Shannon is part of the graduate class of 2023 and she also completed the education strain as well and advocates for any student to take classes at the career academy because college level courses are free and she will use her credits as electives when she goes to ISU in the fall. She says one way to promote the benefits of the career academy was through a public speaking class. 

“I’ve gone to some younger students about like taking advantage of these opportunities because I just think it’s really important for all the younger kids to know what all is available to them, because I didn’t really know about everything that was available to me. I took a few classes, obviously my senior year, but if I was able to know about it sooner last year as a junior, I definitely would’ve taken advantage of more of those credits. I hope that by talking to some of the younger students, they can be more aware and take advantage of those.”  

Cody Allen is also a junior and he completed the construction strain at the career academy. Next year, he plans to take another construction-related strain to further his knowledge and earn more college credits. 

Career Academy Specialist Teresa Green says of the 34 students that completed at least one strain at the career academy, they earned a total of 475 college credits and each student saved an average of $3,000-$4,000.