Career center providing hands-on experience

A state-of-the-art culinary facility, mock hospital rooms and a full-service auto shop are just a few amenities that will give students real-life experience in their field of study at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center.

The new center offers a variety of classes from ballroom dancing to house-wiring and electricity in a space that is twice the size of the old building, which director Harold Tilley said makes it twice as nice.

Tilley said the new $11 million facility is better than the old one simply because of all of the extra space they have. Now the center can have up-to-date technology in every classroom, including 425 computers throughout the building.

"We were maxed out in the old building, and we couldn't add any more technology," Tilley said. "In this building we have the newest technology in every room and everyone is able to have their own lab space."

The old building occupied a 60,000-square-foot space, while the new building sits on a 15-acre plot of land where it occupies 120,000 square feet.

"If you walk around the building through all the nooks and crannies it's a half-mile walk," Tilley said.

The building, which is shaped like a giant T, has three wings, one for health related careers, one for business and one for trade and industry.

In the center of the building sits the main entrance and administration offices along with a large multipurpose room and distance learning center.

Like a movie theater

The distance learning center is a room that can be used for seminars, teacher in-service programs and student programs. Arranged like a small movie theater, the room has lighted corridors on each side, projection screens at the front and five rows of soft chairs. The only difference is that the chairs have wheels and sit at long desks that span almost the entire length of the room instead of being connected together.

Unlike the distance learning center that can only comfortably hold about 35 people, the multipurpose room can accommodate few hundred and allows the school to entertain outside agencies that need a place to meet. Tilley said in cases where businesses use the room, the culinary students at the school can cater lunch or dinner.

That is the key to the center, said Tilley, giving the students the opportunity to have hands-on experience with the newest and best technology.

For culinary students that means a state-of-the-art kitchen with stainless steel freezers, ovens and appliances. Tilley said the kitchen at the center is one that most restaurants would die for. Next to the large kitchen area is a mini-restaurant that is open to the public and run by instructor Carol Scherer.

A hospital atmosphere

Students interested in health-related careers are also given opportunities to have real-life experience in the mock hospital rooms. In one of the lab rooms for nursing students, a real hospital room is set up so students can actually get a feel for what it is like to be in that type of setting.

Hospital beds line one wall with curtain dividers between them and outlets in the wall for medical equipment like oxygen tubes. The room has indirect lighting, which provides soft light and adds to the hospital feeling.

Students who attend the center also have access to a fully operational auto shop, sheet metal shop and welding area. Each of those areas have large work rooms for hands-on experience and an adjoined classroom for instruction.

Televisions with cable access will eventually be a part of every classroom in the building, said Tilley, but right now the center is in the process of purchasing the remaining televisions.

Running the school store

And while the center is busy buying televisions, the students are busy buying too. But what they are buying is treats, snacks and school materials from the school store. Michael Baremore teaches marketing at the center and has his students run the store throughout the day.

Baremore said during the first part of his three-hour classes he teaches the students in the classroom and then for the second half of class he and the students go down to the store for marketing practice. He said the store, which sells candy, hot dogs, popcorn and medical scrubs, sold $11,000 worth of merchandise last year.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128