Career pathways at Northview

Students and staff discuss their experiences in various career-prep pathways

Graphic by Sonya Pandya, Photographer

Katelyn Wu, News Editor, & Sonya Pandya, Photographer

To give students a comprehensive education, Northview offers a variety of opportunities. Most students take advantage of Advanced Placement (AP) classes and extracurriculars. However, some students choose to commit to a specialized field and participate in a career pathway. Many options are available for students to take, and recently, Northview introduced new pathways as well.

One such option that Northview already offers is Engineering, a three-year pathway. For the first-year classes, students learn foundational skills including programming and tool use. The students then move on to project-based learning, including the opportunity to work with NASA. To become certified for the pathway, the students must pass the End of Pathway Assessment (EOPA).

Renee Zhu is a senior who has an interest in building, from Legos to robots. Zhu joined the pathway as soon as she heard about it and has appreciated her experience ever since.

“The Engineering pathway gives a full look at more than just the technical aspects of engineering,” Zhu said. “It focuses on certain life skills like cooperation [and] documentation.”

Another such option is the Visual Arts pathway. Senior Jordan Zheng became interested in the Visual Art field as she grew up watching her father make designs for their family’s restaurant. Zheng has taken Intro to Art, Drawing and Painting One, Two, and Three, and AP 2D Art and Design as part of the pathway. Students in the pathway also have the opportunity to synthesize their work through the National Art Honor Society, which allows them to use their skills to give back to the community.

“Visual Arts gives me a way to be creative; it allows me to explore my creative side while talking about issues or things in general that are important to me,” Zheng said. “It gives me a way to express [myself] in a physical form, and it’s just been really interesting improving and working more in the field.”

After several years, Northview has brought back the Audio/Video Technology and Film pathway to students. With the introduction of a new teacher, Benjamin Prosser, classes are available again to students who are interested in producing videos.

“There's sort of an empty hole where it should be filled, so it's sort of a lost opportunity for students if they don't have the ability to learn how to produce film here at Northview because we've got all the facilities, " Prosser said. “We're actually trying to build it out from scratch because it sort of diminished around COVID.”

In this pathway, students will take a total of three classes–Audio Video Technology and Film One and Two, as well as Applications of Film Production. Through this pathway, students learn how to write scripts, produce indirect films, use camera equipment, and edit their productions through Adobe software. Some of these productions are subsequently posted on student accounts for public viewing.

“They have personal YouTube accounts that they are asked to post their videos on so that when they graduate, they'll still have them. Many of the videos will get published throughout the school at various times,” Prosser said.

At the end of the pathway, students will have to pass a final test to be credited as an Adobe Certified Professional. This will allow them to graduate with a professional certificate in the pathway.

“It's not really your paper-pencil-test type of course,” Prosser said. “I encourage anyone who's looking for a change of pace to join.”

This year, Northview has also recognized 3DE by Junior Achievement to hold a similar course progression model to official pathways.

“Technically, we're not a pathway for the state of Georgia, we're a school within a school model,” Lynne Bombard, Director of School Leadership, said. “We are working as a company for 3DE and Junior Achievement to first expand to work with universities so that it is more recognized and highlighted.”

Students learn how to work professionally through stylized case challenges solving issues for businesses in ninth and tenth grade through a Peer Leadership course. In eleventh and twelfth grade, students partake in different events and courses, allowing them to further learn business-related skills such as entrepreneurship. The official courses include Entrepreneurship and Senior Consultancy. Similar to an official pathway, 3DE students will complete their pathway with a final project, using it for post-high school endeavors.

“And then their final step is [that] they have to do their senior capstone, which is a reflection and a representation of their whole four years in 3DE,” Bombard said.

Currently, many students at Northview also participate in the three-course Healthcare pathway option. The first two courses teach students the basics, and students choose their third-year course between Public Health or Sports Medicine. Students within this pathway have the chance to learn several skills relating to healthcare, such as how to move a patient to a bed from a wheelchair and CPR.

“I think the whole purpose of the pathway is to help students gain more knowledge about the healthcare field, and begin to kind of dip their toes into the different hard and soft skills required to become a successful worker in the field,” Arushi Cumer, senior on the healthcare pathway, said.

Changes are coming to this pathway, with the addition of a new course focused specifically on mental health as opposed to sports medicine or public health. This course will not change the pathway completely, as students will still have to pass the EOPA for healthcare, allowing them to receive a diploma seal, a certificate, and a medal.

“I think the course not only will be really good for people who actually want to be a mental health professional, but also just understanding your own mental health,” Michael Barber, a healthcare teacher, said.

In light of the recent pathways added to Northview, pathways can pose many benefits to the students who choose to follow them. Pathways, in a way, allow students to explore their own identities through their interests. They can build these interests into careers through pathways, or simply prepare themselves for professional fields.