During the 2024-2025 school year, 12 students will be spending part of the school day taking part in the Fair Grove High School OTC Program.
Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) is a public college located in Springfield that offers a variety of programs for students. Such programs include early childhood education, health sciences, and culinary arts. Fair Grove’s OTC Program is an option for students at the high school to leave the school and spend a portion of the day at the OTC Career Center.
The students going to OTC next year are juniors (will be seniors) Nevaeh Lahey, Maryssa Boswell, Gannon Ellis, Brooklyn Pippin, Brooklyn Smith, Isabel Wells, Mattilee Wilson, Addison Workman and sophomores (will be juniors) Alivia Cooper, Desiree Labaw, Lakyn Saddler, and Alyssa Wade.
The OTC program has helped students to get a head start on their careers. “It has allowed them to gain college credit and high school credit at the same time, at no cost to them,” said Fair Grove High School Counselor and Head Volleyball Coach Tonya Peck.
Peck added, “It has also allowed students to get a job immediately out of high school with the training they received at the Career Center.”
Most students that try to join the OTC Program have a good chance of succeeding. According to Peck, “As long as a student is on track with their credits, no major discipline issues, and can handle the freedom that being on OTC’s campus entails, they have a great chance of being accepted.”
Lahey intends to study animal science at OTC. “I want to study it because it is the start of my career path of wanting to be a small and large animal veterinary surgeon,” she stated.
Lahey explained that after high school she plans to attend OTC for two years, then attend Missouri State University, and finally transfer to University of Missouri.
OTC is a good way for students to get ahead in their careers and get the experience of being at a college campus.
