Alief Center for Advanced Careers

Many students dream about their future careers or attending higher education after they leave high school, while for others it seems those dreams could never be a reality. For the students of Alief ISD, a new project will help to make those dreams possible. The Alief Center for Advanced Careers will provide students with the means necessary to get to the next level of their academic and professional careers. 

Thanks to community partnerships, the Alief Center for Advanced Careers modeled the academic programs, courses, and classrooms after professions and trades that offer students real-world experience. The Center will provide courses in architectural design, automotive technology, construction technology, culinary arts, digital design, health science, industrial robotics, IT, veterinary science, and welding. These partnerships will help the Alief Center to enable students to easily transition into higher education or their profession or trade of choice.

Patrick Dingrando, the director of Construction & Facilities for Alief ISD, emphasized that “The District has a progressive mentality with respect to future trends in education and the workforce it needs locally. To that end, the Center for Advanced Careers will play a major role in bringing together programs from elementary to Higher Ed.” 

Classrooms and labs mirror real work environments and provide students an advantage in forming career expectations early on. As students enroll in and pass classes at the Center, they will have the opportunity to acquire certifications and licenses needed in their professions. 

One unique aspect of the project was the level of involvement from the school district throughout the project, starting with the design charrette. During those two days, the superintendent, board members, teachers, and design team brainstormed to generate the facilities and layouts that would ultimately comprise the Center. The group toured Katy ISD’s Miller CTE Center, Spring Branch ISD’s Guthrie Center, and Pasadena ISD’s CTE Center to see examples of active CTE Centers and get ideas for programs and corresponding floor plans. House Bill 5 also had a large influence on what programs would be featured in the new facility. 

Kimberly Crow, the director of career & technical education and innovation for the Center, said “Alief ISD has been committed to (House Bill 5) and this building shows that our community is as well.” 

The superintendent, HD Chambers, was one of the co-authors of the bill. He was excited to be a part of the charrette and see the evolution of this Bill becoming a physical space. At the end of the design charrette, the overall concept became making a facility where the students felt as if they were going to work, not to class. 

The design team used comments from the design charrette to create the classroom and lab floor plans. One intentionality behind the design was to create layouts so people touring the center would be able to see the lab area that resembles an actual work environment. In the future, middle school students will be able to tour the facility and see what courses they could enroll in. Business personnel throughout the area would also be invited to tour the Center in case they would like to donate their time, resources, or services. A notable feature of the facility is the electrochromic glass, which allows passersby to see into the lab areas first with the classroom area behind it. The glass also serves a sustainability purpose since it is connected to a weather monitoring device, enabling the glass to tint or lighten based on the weather, time of day, and the overall position of the sun. 

“The most compelling aspect of the Center is the Main Street area where light, textures, color, and collaboration areas all contribute to an exciting thought-provoking educational environment that reminds me of my days in college,” Dingrando mused. “It is an exciting time to be a student in Alief ISD.”

A key dual-purpose area of the school is the Interactive Observation Lab (IOL) also known as the Asymmetric Cone. Its primary purpose is to act as a surgical amphitheater where students can sit on the balcony and observe medical procedures taking place in the center of the cone. Moveable glass partitions make it easy to accommodate automotive and welding classes so professors can wheel in large pieces of equipment to work on inside the cone while students watch from above. The IOL can be used for the instructional purposes by any of the 10 different program fields that the Center offers. Its exceptional duality makes it a key feature that the design team realized the Center needed. 

High school students from Elsik, Hastings, and Taylor will take the first or second-level course at their campus and upon successful completion, they can complete advanced courses that are worth multiple credits at the center. Middle school students from the district can also participate in CTE courses to learn about options for high school. With the help of a career assessment recommendation and a transition counselor, they can work on a four-year plan to prepare them for courses both in high school and at the Center. 

All of these programs, resources, partners, and professors are contributing factors that made this project a success. Prior to the Center, Alief ISD had never had such an innovative, adaptable, well-equipped facility, and now, it is by far the most cutting-edge facility in the district. 

Crow believes the teachers will be impressed by the space when the first day of school rolls around. “Having worked with many of the teachers since the mid-1990s, I know where they are coming from. The small, dark, and very crowded labs. To see their faces in the new space is so exciting.” Crow also anticipates the students being as excited saying, “I can’t wait to see the student’s faces in August.” 

The Center gives Alief ISD students an innovative, purposefully designed space, which cultivates and trains their passions toward a successful career path.