The Athens Community Career Academy is located at 440 Dearing Ext. The ACCA Governance Board has adopted three career pathways for the 2024-25 school year to increase post-secondary opportunities for students. “One of the purposes of the Career Academy is to offer pathways that will allow students to graduate from high school and be in a position or have the certifications to actually go right into the work field if they so choose to do so with jobs that they can sustain that will help take care of them,” ACCA Director Reginald Thomas said. Photo from ODYSSEY archives
Athens Community Career Academy will offer new pathways starting in the 2024-25 school year.
The Athens Community Career Academy will add three pathways at the start of the 2024-25 school year: firefighting, biotechnology, and sports entertainment and management.
With these additions, the ACCA will offer a total of 16 pathways, which are sets of classes tailored to specific career areas so that students can get experience and better prepare to join the workforce.
“(The firefighting pathway) is in conjunction with the Athens Clarke-County Fire Department and once students complete that pathway, (and) they graduate, they’ll be eligible to actually become firefighters for the county,” ACCA Director Reginald Thomas said. “We also have a biotech pathway that’s starting up– that’s doing a lot of work in labs, working with chemicals, research, sales and all that sort of thing.”
The ACCA Governance Board made the decision to add these three pathways because members found there were local job opportunities in these career areas, which would provide opportunities for students after graduation.
“There’s been more opportunities that have been presented. They’re adding a lot more, and I think they’ve made it easily accessible. I have a lot of friends that do (ACCA classes) because they want to take advantage of the opportunities.”
— Easton Snipes,CCHS freshman
“There is a lot of biotechnology plants coming to Athens and they’ll need workers, so that’s why the biotech pathway is coming about. There’s a shortage of firefighters in this area so that’s a program we’re going to pilot,” Thomas said. “And with the Classic Center growing and expanding and having the arena and getting into the entertainment business with concerts and sporting events and all that, that was the area that our board felt would be needing employees and our students who completed the pathway would be in positions to take some of those jobs.”
Athens Community Career Academy Director Reginald Thomas participates in an ODYSSEY Media Group press conference in Room 231 on Jan. 25, 2019. The ACCA Governance Board has adopted three career pathways for the 2024-25 school year, and is currently in the hiring process. “We try to find applicants that made the requirements for each of these jobs, that’s how we go about that. For the firefighter one, that’s in junction with the Athens Clarke County Fire Department, so they’ll actually be providing the instructor to teach that,” Thomas said. Photo from ODYSSEY archives
Clarke Central High School freshman Easton Snipes plans to enroll at the ACCA next year, and believes that the new pathways have made the ACCA a better option for many students.
“There’s been more opportunities that have been presented. They’re adding a lot more, and I think they’ve made it easily accessible,” Snipes said. “I have a lot of friends that do (ACCA classes) because they want to take advantage of the opportunities.”
