CTC Career Talk
June Extra 2026
For those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Ms. Edmonds, and I am the Career Coach for CTC. I am here to help guide you on your journey to discovering your passions and future career paths. Whether you are exploring new interests, developing skills, or planning for life after high school, I am here to help! My office is in the media center next to the copy room, please come see me or email me at brenna.edmonds@fcps.org.
🚨Alum Alert🚨
“Taking Mrs. Howard’s dental assisting class was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my career. Her class gave me the knowledge, skills, and confidence I needed to get started in the dental field. While taking her course, I asked my own dentist if I could shadow for a few days, and shortly after, I landed an internship there. This gave me valuable hands-on experience and helped me realize how much I truly enjoyed dental assisting.
Towards the end of her course, my classmates and I went on to take the NELDA exam, and I eventually received my radiology license. While still in my senior year of high school, my internship offered me a position as a Dental Assistant once I graduated. After a few months of working, my job gave me the opportunity to participate in a six-week DATS (Dental Assisting Training Schools) program to further my education and skills. After completing the program, I earned my Expanded Functions license, one year after receiving my radiology license!
Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful for everything Mrs. Howard’s class taught me and for the opportunities it opened up for me. It truly gave me the foundation to start a career that I’m proud of, and I’m excited to continue learning, growing, and building my future in the dental field.”
~Ariel Adlam CTC Dental Assisting Cohort #1
Student Summer Exploration
Jack McGraw: AM Culinary Arts
My experience this summer with the Johnson & Wales Career Explorations Camp (CX) was eye opening. I was there experiencing college life for four days living in the dorms and eating the dining hall food.
The first day was spent getting checked in and doing a lot of ice breaker questions learning about where everyone was from and their experience with the culinary life as well as learning about what we would do in this camp.
The second day was lab day. It was a 7 hour lab learning how to break down chicken and fish and prepping for the next day's feast with all the campers. This day really helped me figure out that I wanted to pursue this career and what college labs are all about; Getting graded on all aspects of your work and how there’s not a lot of room for error, but they will support you if you're willing to learn!
The third day was the feast! We started out by pulling all of the already prepped fish, vegetables, and fruits from the day before. That day was a lot better in the kitchen because on day one, everyone was nervous because of not knowing each other that well and not knowing the kitchen layout. This day, we made lots of different foods like fish chowder, fried chicken, and fresh pasta with butternut squash sauce.
After the feast, I went off to talk to one of the counselors about the day to day of Johnson and Wales. He was very helpful, explaining a lot of different labs that they had done throughout the year and his struggles with them.
The final day was saying goodbye to the campus and all the friends I made from this experience. This camp was definitely worth it making connections with chefs across the country and I feel like I learned a lot of valuable things!
Tristan Vail: AM Extended Tech Culinary
Over the summer I started my outlook for colleges that might pique my interest in the Culinary field that I study here at CTC. One of the colleges I thought would be nice to visit was The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), located right on the Hudson River in Hyde Park, New York. The campus is not only vast for the programs they offer, but plenty modern too. As I toured the different buildings and teaching kitchens around the campus, I saw multiple top of the line machineries, as well as techniques being taught to the future culinary artists of America.
Over my 2 day stay in Hyde Park, I went and visited many local restaurants, both finer and moderate dining experiences. One such higher dining facility was The Storyteller, located inside The Inn at Bellefield. While not busy at the time of the visit, the restaurant was very calming with low lighting and soft music. The service was good as well as multiple of the employees, both working in the kitchen and serving, being students at CIA. The waitress, a graduating senior in the Hospitality Management Bachelor’s program, described her enjoyable experience with the college, as well as an end of year project that involved serving and manufacturing a private event.
On campus were many restaurants and cafes that students were working at. Some include the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe, The Egg (Dining hall), and American Bounty. Some were full sized restaurants, like American Bounty, while others were cafes. These restaurants and cafes were certainly higher end with top of the line creations.
Housing on campus is split into 3 different kinds. Resident halls, for the freshman and underclassman students, the resident townhouses, and the resident lodges. Housing at CIA is guaranteed for every student who attends the college, which would be included in the cost of tuition. CIA can be seen as quite expensive for those looking to attend, at about $44,000 a year (living on campus), however like most colleges, they offer multiple scholarships and financial aid opportunities for all students. I really enjoyed my time during the tours and would highly recommend looking into some of their programs.
Ms. Desimon took part in a Volunteer trip toThailand and had the privilege of serving two different school communities in Northern Thailand. Together with other participants, she worked with elementary through high school students offering health screenings, English language classes and art education. Working with the students in Thailand was the highlight of the trip, but traveling around Thailand and experiencing this beautiful culture was truly remarkable too:)
