Do you know what you want to do when you grow up?  Chances are, you’re tired of this question, even though you might not have it all figured out yet.  The Career Tech program at Bob Jones allows students to explore careers before college.

There are various “Pathways,” and one popular area is Fashion. Mrs. Kristy Wheeler, the fashion teacher, gave us an overview of her area and outlined the purpose of the Fashion program below.

The Fashion Pathway includes three courses: Fashion, Fashion Design, and Fashion Merchandising. Students take these courses in progression, one level at a time. Students build a portfolio for college, starting out with the basics and ending by creating their own fashion collections.

During the fashion program, students take several trips including Auburn University’s Fashion Program, Fashion Tour of New York City, and America’s Mart in Atlanta. Fashion merchandising students also complete an internship at Belk, giving them real world, hands-on experiences.

Fashion students participate in the FCCLA Student Organization (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America). In FCCLA, students compete at the state and national level and earn scholarship money. State and National competitions include the following categories: Fashion Design, Fashion Construction, Fashion Illustration, Recycle Redesign, Entrepreneurship, and Career Investigation. Anyone interested in competition can visit the official site: http://www.fcclainc.org/.

Several Bob Jones graduates who’ve gone through the fashion program continued on to major in Fashion in college. Some have come back to be guest speakers, sharing they were better prepared than other students in their college class because of Bob Jones program.