New Orleans Career Center offers a fast track to professional goals for ambitious high schoolers

BY LESLIE CARDÉ | CONTRIBUTING WRITER PUBLISHED DEC 17, 2021 ON NOLA.COM
Published in print in The Advocate on Dec. 21, 2021

Torrance Taylor practices medical skills in a clinical education lab at the New Orleans Career Center in New Orleans, La. Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Torrance is a graduate of the program. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

If Dr. Alice Geoffray had been able to project herself 50 years into the future, she would have seen her name etched into the evolving New Orleans Career Center, a nonprofit technical education center being built on the former site of McDonogh 35 High School in Tremé. And, she would have seen her children honor her legacy by giving scholarships to students studying at the center.

In 1965, Geoffray, a shorthand and typing teacher with seven children, helped found a school on Exchange Place to offer equal opportunity in vocational education. Between 1965 and 1972, the Adult Education Center graduated 431 students. The government stripped AEC’s funding two years into the program, but big business, like Shell Oil, funded the remaining three years, until its closure in 1972.

Forty-five years later, the New Orleans Career Center opened as a non-profit technical education center for high school students in the city. Claire Jecklin, formerly principal of New Orleans’ well-regarded Science and Math High School, was the NOCC founding director.

Jecklin was part of a group that sought ways to ensure a path to technical training for those caught between a high school education and a four-year college degree.

Khaija Faulk, left, and Torrance Taylor practice medical skills in a clinical education lab at the New Orleans Career Center in New Orleans, La. Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Torrance and Khaija are graduates of the program. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

“We’re not talking about the old days of vo-tech where you train in a very specific endeavor and do that for the rest of your life. New technology has changed all of this, Jecklin said.

"You can no longer fix a car with a wrench... it’s all computerized. Everyone is going into a career, but it’s no longer about a college degree or bust, or stopping your education at your high school graduation."

In New Orleans, where 60% of the available jobs are called “mid-skill,” requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a four-year degree, NOCC provides an opportunity to learn needed skill sets, Jecklin said. The tuition-free program offers high school students an entrée into the job market with opportunities for training and certification well in advance of graduating from high school.

NOCC is not a New Orleans public school, although the Orleans Parish School Board is among its partners (others include Youthforce NOLA, GNO Inc. and the state Department of Education).

Instead it's a nonprofit, financed by various public education funds, federal workforce dollars, grants and donations.

Students take classes part of the day and study at their home high schools the rest of the day.

The career center is at 1020 N. Prieur St., but it will move into a new facility in January 2023 on the site of the original McDonogh 35 High School. The old McDonogh 35 building is being completely redone and equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms tailored to the needs of prospective health care workers, welders, electricians, carpenters and plumbers.

Khaija Faulk began at NOCC in 2018, the first year of its existence. She's now a college student working toward her Bachelor of Science in nursing at Ochsner-affiliated Chamberlain University.

"I spent the afternoons during my junior and senior years at Landry Walker High School going to NOCC," she said. By the time she had finished her junior year, Faulk already had a two-year medical assistant certification as part of the center’s accelerated learning program.

"During my senior year I was taking college courses in nursing. I can’t say enough about this mind-blowing program" that put her on a fast track to her career, Faulk said.

Right now, 18 of 24 New Orleans public schools participate, and anyone who applies is welcome, with limits from each one of the 18 schools, since there are currently only 350 slots. Next year, NOCC will have room for 700, and when the new school is completed, 1,000 students.

NOCC visits the high schools when the students are sophomores, so if they want to attend they can begin in their junior or senior years. The high schools decide which students can go, based on performance; NOCC never chooses one student over another.

The center also offers Adult Rapid Re-skill Training, full day, accelerated coursework to prepare and certify workers for careers in high demand jobs.

Torrance Taylor graduated from McDonogh 35 in June. She plans on getting her BSN in 2024 from Chamberlain, then going on to obtain her doctorate eventually.

Torrance Taylor, left, and Khaija Faulk practice medical skills in a clinical education lab at the New Orleans Career Center in New Orleans, La. Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Torrance and Khaija are graduates of the program. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

“The Career Center changed my life,” Taylor said. “It has expanded my horizons and taken me beyond a traditional high school education. It’s made me part of a professional environment where education is taken seriously."

The program sets high standards. "It’s a professional place where professional behavior is expected,” Taylor said.

Faulk and Taylor are this year’s recipients in New Orleans of the 431 Exchange’s scholarship program, named for the original 431 graduates of the Adult Education Center founded by Alice Geoffray on Exchange Place.

The 431 Exchange was founded by Alice Geoffray’s children, Jeanne and Jeff, and gives out $1,431 scholarships that can be used for further education, transportation, rent or wherever funds are needed.

Pioneering career educator Alice Geoffray, left, and Adult Education Center graduate Lucille Le'Obia are shown in 1972. A nonprofit founded by Geoffray's children gave scholarships to students at the New Orleans Career Center, among other technical schools. PROVIDED PHOTO

“We give out scholarships in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas," where the non-profit is headquartered, said Jeanne Geoffray, co-founder of the 431 Exchange. “We want to reward those who’ve benefited from the Career Center process, whom we feel are bright, eager to learn, and are role models for those coming behind them.”

NOCC has trained nearly 1,000 students in pursuits as diverse as healthcare and manufacturing to engineering and hospitality.

Alice Geoffray, who served as Louisiana’s first State Coordinator of Career Education, would be proud of a system that’s about inclusion, providing free education to those determined to succeed, and ultimately changing the landscape of the New Orleans workforce.

See the article on Nola.com: https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_3ea3847e-59dd-11ec-b47a-03efe8e24e5b.html

In the news: Our scholarship winners & the New Orleans Career Center

New Orleans Career Center offers a fast track to professional goals for ambitious high schoolers