Creteau Tech: an amazing place where hard work pays big dividends

Creteau Tech Center Michele Halligan-Foley, inset Matthew Lacy, a senior in the Restaurant management Program and two student working Machine Bots. (Rochester Voice photos)

ROCHESTER - As R.W. Creteau Technology Director, Michele Halligan-Foley likes to say, a lot of the machines students learn on here are better than those in operation at the local companies they'll be working at once they graduate.

"We're always thinking out of the box," Halligan-Foley said on Wednesday before a ribbon cutting celebrating the Tech Center's just completed $16 million dollar improvement project. "With the renovation, a lot was updated. Now we're preparing the students for the future like never before."

Not only can they be fully trained for high-paying jobs at local composites manufacturers like Safran and Albany Int., but if they choose to go on to higher education they can save thousands of dollars by getting a third or a sixth of the credits needed for an associate's or bachelor's degree.

And while the cooperative effort between the Creteau Tech Center, Safran and Albany has gotten much of the spotlight over the years, students here have many career pathways from which to choose, including nursing, auto mechanics, graphic design, precision machining, restaurant management and criminal justice, 16 in all.

With a recent decision by the state that allows students in the 10^th grade to enter the two-year completer program, it now frees up seniors to job shadow or even intern at local companies out in the field giving them an added edge toward a permanent position once they graduate high school.

The starter program costs $150 for a college credit, with the school paying $100 per credit and the student $50, which can save them thousands of dollars toward a graduate degree.

Even Freshmen can take advantage of the classes at Creteau Tech, taking six-to-eight week exploratory classes.

Once students get in to the program, student counselors take great pains to make sure all their core requirements over at Spaulding are taken care of, noted Halligan-Foley.

Meanwhile advisers from the companies Creteau Tech has partnered with discuss important facets of their potential career choice, much of it done in the Personalized Learning Commons, a second-floor area that was dedicated to former Rochester Schools superintendent Mike Hopkins on Wednesday night.

One of the things Halligan-Foley is most proud of is the school's and its 500 students' unwavering commitment to giving back to the community.

She said currently students from graphic arts and precision machining departments are creating signage for Rochester's City Hall at no cost except for material.

"We love giving back," she said. "And students are seeing the good work that's being done and they're proud of it and they're learning form it."

She added that another sure sign of success is seeing so many former students who come back and tell her that without Creteau Tech they would've been lost in that first year of college or trade school, or even their first job.