Passport ceremony honors graduating Coshocton Career Center seniors

• The Coshocton County Career Center recently held its passport ceremony for a senor class of 135 students. Students receive folders with certifications, awards and scholarships.
• Next year's senior class will be about 207 students with the incoming junior class at 220 students. The vocational school is one of the smallest in Ohio, but also fastest growing.

COSHOCTON — The Coshocton County Career Center is poised for a bright future with record enrollment for next school year, but first the school must bid a fond farewell to the current senior class.

The vocational school recently held its annual passport ceremony for exiting seniors. It's similar to a commencement ceremony, but students technically only graduate from their home districts.

Still, officials feel it's important to recognize the accomplishments they had at the vocational school. Students received folders which contained their various scholarships, awards and certifications.

This was the largest senior class the career center has ever had at 135 students. This led to the passport ceremony being broken up into two sessions and being held at nearby Newpointe Church.

Principal Andy Slaughter said while they are one of the smallest vocational schools in Ohio, they are also one of the fastest growing. The incoming junior class is about 220, or around 67% of the county's juniors. He said that number has grown each of the past three years. The current junior class is 207 students and about 58% of all juniors in the county.

Slaughter said 96% of students leaving the career center either go into their chosen field, join the military, pursue higher education or have an internship.

"That's a very high number of kids we expect to be in one of those four things after high school. We're very proud of that number and that's a testament to our teachers and team members at the career center and the wonderful job they do in preparing our kids to take that next step after high school," Slaughter said.

Due to the growth, Slaughter said the building is busting at the seams and they are looking to address that with an addition that will allow for them to add two new program. In November, the career center received a $4.4 million Career and Technical Education construction grant through the State of Ohio. This will be two state-of-the-art labs about 11,000 square-feet dedicated to applied machinery and advanced manufacturing and utility line worker programs.

Both programs should start in the fall of 2025 with criminal justice being discontinued at the end of next school year. The electrical systems technology program started this past school year, replacing electronics.

Emma Prouty, of River View, was a student of the criminal justice program and wants to enter law enforcement after a stint in the U.S. Army.

"The career center in itself just offers so many different opportunities. It just doesn't subject you to one particular subject, but it allows you to dive into all kinds of different things," Prouty said on how she felt the career center has readied her for her next steps. "The career center recognizing the seniors shows our two years here have been worthwhile and that we've actually accomplished something."

Brook Conklin, of Coshocton, was in the early childhood education program and is planning to major in social work with a focus in education this fall at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. She's been able to take college level coursework that will give her a leg up.

Conklin won a contest to deliver the passport ceremony speech for her class for the afternoon session. Her speech focused on dreams and how the career center has helped all of them to achieve their dreams.

"This has helped me find my future career and explore different options. I know, after getting out of high school, I'm not questioning and wondering about what I'm going to do. I now know what I'm doing," she said.

Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with more than 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @llhayhurst.