While many high schools offer classes that will prepare students for college, or earn them college credits, Cherry Creek Innovation Campus (CCIC) offers students the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in many fields such as Aerospace manufacturing, Business Services, Heath and Wellness, Hospitality/Tourism, Infrastructure Engineering, IT/STEM, and Transportation.
CCIC offers courses that are designed to help students know what career they would like to go into, and if they think they want to do something, CCIC helps them know if they really want to go into that field.
“People join healthcare thinking they really wanna do it,” CCIC Principal, Steve Day said. “They get some experience and maybe some bedside care and they realize, this is kind of rough, this work isn’t for everybody and some absolutely discover that this is exactly what they wanna do.”
Experience isn’t the only thing CCIC has to offer. They also offer a wide variety of certifications and college credits students can attain through classes.
“We offer over 40 industry certifications.” Alex Sabin, CCIC’s assistant Principal said. “We have selected these certifications with the help of our industry partners to ensure they are relevant and aligned to the technical skills desired of their future talent pipeline.”
CCIC offers a lot of courses students can choose from depending on their field of interest.
“One of my favorite [courses], because it’s really different than most high schools, is our aviation program.” Day said. “You can do ground school here. You can be a commercial drone pilot. You can be a mechanic, and you [can] get all of those certifications [at CCIC].”
Many students apply for and attend CCIC not only because of the certifications, or experience you can get, but also because of the high acceptance rate each year.
“We had over 2000 applications last year and we expect to receive over 2000 applications again this year.” Sabin says. “Technically, we are at capacity at about 1700 students. That means we have close to 400 students placed on the waitlist.”
Although students might be waitlisted, there are still multiple opportunities for them to attend CCIC.
“I think it is also important to note that the CCIC does not look at GPA, attendance, or behavior when considering student applicants because those are not factors that determine if a student will be successful at the CCIC.” Sabin said.
This not only gets rid of stress levels with getting grades up, but also helps students who aren’t excelling in school go into the pathway of their choice.
“CCIC is a campus full of opportunity for every student.” Sabin said. “We love students from [every] high school in CCSD, grades 10-12, AP, and IB scholars”
