Grove City Christian School
Location: Grove City, Ohio
Technology
Program Objective: to increase technology awareness within the student body by using community business partnerships
Summary of Program:
At Grove City Christian School, the AutoCAD Business Partnership class is offered to all high school students who have completed the Keyboarding, Computer Technology, and Web Design courses. The purpose of the program is to expand the technology department by offering course work that interests high school students and gives them the opportunity to learn skills and use design software found in the engineering profession.
Over the summer, the school’s administration contacted the McKnight & Hosterman Architect Group with a proposal for the company to send an architect to the school once a day to teach the AutoCAD course. David McKnight, vice president of McKnight & Hosterman, posted a sign asking for volunteers among his associates to teach the course during their lunch hours. Phillip Tipton and Alicia Radcliff graciously agreed to facilitate the program. With the administration, they then began planning the course of study, equipment setup, and classroom policies and expectations.
Understanding the potential results of this partnership, the school funded a second computer lab and invested in the software and plotter for the course. Mr. Tipton and Ms. Radcliff worked with Cindy Bigelow, the school’s curriculum director, to assure that a comprehensive course of study was written and followed. Randy Carroll, the school’s network administrator, spent countless hours working out all of the technology kinks and had the second lab operating on the first day of school. The school informed students about the course, and quickly the class was full.
Since the beginning of the course, students have not only learned the basic tools offered in AutoCAD but have also begun designing individual plans. In addition, the students have toured McKnight & Hosterman and viewed the use of AutoCAD in designing churches throughout the United States.
Working on phase two of their business partnership, Grove City Christian School and McKnight & Hosterman are developing an AutoCAD II course for next school year. The school is also working to create a business partnership with another organization in order to begin computer-programming course work for the following school year. Those at the school praise God for strong Christian businesses that are willing to invest in future generations.
AutoCAD Business Partnership Class 5.5