Canon City High School Overview
Career-connected education provides students with educational relevance, leading to increased classroom engagement, the desire to accomplish work-based learning internships, the reality of game-changing graduation rates, and the completion of passion projects that set a student on a path to understanding and valuing 21st-century skills.
At Canon City High School, we foster an environment where all courses directly relate to career and higher education success. We’re the number one public high school in Colorado for per capita early college credit attainment–90% of our graduates will earn college credit, and 16 in 2023 will have earned Associate’s Degrees. We’ve provided and helped achieve these milestones on behalf of our graduates because nearly half of our teachers are adjunct professors with Pueblo Community College–they possess the Master’s Degree education or the Career and Technical Education certification to provide students with dual credit.
Our students also earn the most industry-standard certifications in Colorado. Last year, our student population of 970 students earned 430 certifications and completed more than 150 internships. These documents and experiences allow them to work in the industry immediately at a higher than service industry wage while continuing their education.
Further, our high school joins a few in the state to require a work-based internship for every student before graduation. Each student must complete 60 hours of training with their chosen local business partner. This course is often the popular choice for our students. Whether they love or hate the internship experience, they recognize that they have gained valuable information about a career choice long before spending time and resources training for it.
Cañon City High School students must present a Capstone project at the end of their experience. These passion projects are typically focused within the student's chosen career field, mentored by their internship employer, and often lead to the direct hiring of students into the workforce.
Cañon City High School staff recognizes that every student deserves to feel safe and welcome. We strive to provide preventative emotional education, forming close bonds with trusted adults and back-stopping students’ ability to self-advocate for the rest of their lives. We also place pinnacle priority on safety and security. Our processes, personnel, and physical measures are best practices and lead to staff and students’ safety each day.
Sometimes, especially in rural parts of our state, communities lament the unequal education opportunities for our youth. They claim it leads to less vital education and youth migration away from the small town’s workforce. In Canon City, the community celebrates the education of our students because they get to participate in it. They also clammer for more opportunities to work with our interns and hire them to modernize and update their workforce. No matter where a student ends up in their post-secondary experience, if they already possess higher education credit, industry-standard certification, workforce experience, and a focus on what education can do for them in the future, they are ultimately more successful.