Excel TECC Exemplars

Want to learn more about something you’re interested in? Then Excel TECC, the career technical education program, might be for you. In this program, there are 25 two-year programs, including sports medicine, photography, and culinary arts. Students who decide to pursue Excel TECC usually take their courses at different schools and follow a different schedule for the day.

Senior Hailey Weisberg is enrolled in the Exercise Science & Sports Rehabilitation program located at Brush High School.

“This was the perfect opportunity to get a headstart on learning about [my specific] career path,” Weisberg said. “[At this program], we work out almost every single day, and in addition we learn how to make training programs, about different body parts, muscles, bones and how they act with each other.”

Being in this specific Excel TECC program helps further Weisberg’s knowledge about physical therapy and to prepare her for what she wants to study in college.

Another senior, Collin Lewis, has been involved with Excel TECC for two years, studying Information Technology & Programming (ITP). He explained a little bit about the project he’s working on in class.

“We are currently doing more personal projects that lead us down to our capstone, which is our one project that we’re going to leave Excel TECC with,” Lewis said. “I am making a mobile application that uses the GTP-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) and some hardware to make a cool app.”

GPT-3 is a machine learning model to produce human-like text. It is the third generation language prediction model in the GPT-n series (and the successor to GPT-2) created by OpenAI. Lewis is using this model to detect what emotion is being said based on what the user answers.

Mary Ellen Simecek, organizer for Excel TECC at Solon High School, believes that Excel TECC is a great opportunity for students to learn more about what they’re interested in.

“Even if you don’t want to go into a career tech program, it’s actually nice to [check it out] just for career exploration,” Simecek said.

Alexa Ressler, a senior, is enrolled in the Teacher Education and Children’s Health (TEACH) program at Beachwood High School and is enjoying her time as a teacher-in-training.

“I felt like [Excel TECC] was more valuable to be taking classes that will help me with my future compared to taking random electives like foods,” Ressler said. “I felt like it would help me in the long run to take it.”

Excel TECC has helped push students in the right direction: towards their future careers. According to Mrs. Simecek, having the opportunity to do hands-on learning is important to the students as well as their teachers.

Students interested in Excel TECC can take these words of advice from Mrs. Simecek: “You do you,” Simecek said. “Don’t pick classes because all [your] friends are going there, think about what it is you want to do for your future. Check it out, you owe it to yourself to check it out. If it’s not for you, that’s fine, but if it’s something for you, then talk to your guidance counselor, talk to me, and see if it’s a good match for you.”