— Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Tyler Anderson Webster City's Emma Peck (center) checks out one of the X-ray machines, while (far right) Emma Lalor of Eagle Grove and Troy Schoon, Radiology Manager of Van Diest Medical Center, handle another X-ray machine last Friday morning in Webster City.

On a Friday morning, Webster City senior Emma Peck and Eagle Grove junior Emma Lalor spend their time within the contemporary confines of Van Diest Medical Center’s radiology department.

There, under the watchful eye of VDMC’s Radiology Manager Troy Schoon, Peck and Lalor are shown the art and science behind the X-ray and the CT scan machines. Peck and Lalor come to the Webster City-based hospital with the ambitions of wanting to get into the medical field down the road.

It may not be in radiology, but for the two students, it’s a chance to get their foot into the door.

The proverbial “foot in the door” is Iowa Central Community College’s North Central Career Academy, based out of Eagle Grove. Out of the old armory, high school students from Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Eagle Grove, Fort Dodge Senior High, Humboldt, St. Edmond and Webster City can venture into one of seven pathways.

Along with Health Services, the pathways include Business, Manufacturing, Computer Science, Engineering, Teacher Academy and Liberal Arts — the latter being a transfer mechanism toward universities such as Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa.

At the career academy, high school students take college credit courses while getting set up with opportunities to connect with businesses and industries within the area.

Within these All Academy Job Shadow days, students can meet with professionals, who in turn relay skills and other important information needed for their specific profession.

Van Diest Medical Center is one of several area participants in the program, along with Van Diest Supply Company and Mertz Engineering.

Overseeing this since the beginning is Colleen Bartlett, a Career Academy Specialist for Iowa Central.

“I love my job,” Bartlett said. “It’s great to work with these students, it’s a lot of fun, and it helps them decide where they want to go.”

According to Bartlett, the students arrive in the morning via transportation provided by their respective school districts, and take classes based on their preferred option.

“They earn up to 19 credits, without cost to the student,” Bartlett said. “The school systems are responsible, as they have an agreement with Iowa Central. If a student is in Business, they take Accounting I, Marketing and Business Law — those credits will go to any business program and help them see if that’s what they want to do. “

The academy not only allows a high school student to meet professionals, but opens the door for them to network with students from other districts.

“We often focus on the cost savings, but there’s a lot more to it,” said Bartlett. “There’s a social part of it, as well. We’ve ended up with a lot of roommates, we’ve ended up with a lot of times where students will attend another student’s game or play. The social part of it is really good.”

Since the development of the charter schools back in the mid-2000s, high schools and community colleges have created dual-credit classes and virtual classes that operate through the high school.

Bartlett stresses that the career academy is a bit different.

“Here, it’s more of a college setting,” Bartlett said. “It’s a natural college experience. We follow the college’s calendar and the curriculum. It’s not where they see the same teacher every day. It’s somebody within Iowa Central’s faculty that they get used to, before moving on to an Iowa State, Iowa or even Iowa Central’s main campus.”

“It gives them that chance to realize that it isn’t like high school, the rules are different,” added Bartlett. “It’s really a great learning experience.”

Students could be a part of the academy for two years, with one year spent in one pathway with another pathway taken the following year.

“We had a student who was in the teacher academy, and thought that she was going to be a teacher,” Bartlett said. “The next year, she came back as a senior and went into health care. Now, she’s enrolled in radiology at Iowa Central.”

“She said, ‘I didn’t like it, but as my dad always said, nobody can take education away from you,'” Bartlett continued. “She still has that education, learned what it was all about and decided that it was for her.”

For Peck and Lalor, it’s the ability to see everything in action that stands out the most.

“You get to see the actual equipment, rather than what you see in a textbook at school,” said Peck. “You get to see the machines in action.”

“It’s a good learning experience,” Lalor said, echoing Peck. “Instead of saying ‘oh, I want to go do this because it sounds fun’ and you read about it, you actually experience what the actual day on the job is like.”