By Harlan Kirgan Editor
There may be many jewels in Eunice — Liberty Theater, LSUE, the walking trail — but there is one that is so off the beaten track that most people don’t know it is there.
That jewel is the Eunice Career & Technical Education Center at 421 S. 10th St.
Don’t expect to see a school at the location. The building looks more like an old barn or warehouse.
‘We love to see people’s faces when they come in the front door because it looks like a barn and it was a barn,” Aimee Summerlin, a secretary at the school said.
“When they open the doors they see a school,” she said.
Longtime Eunice educator Lisa Fuselier is the facilitator of the school.
“Three years ago, right after I left Eunice High, the state department changed the education structure so now graduation is either a university pathway or Jump Start.”
Jump Start is the curriculum guiding students to the center where they can study culinary arts, emergency medical first response, automotive repair, welding, nursing, carpentry and oil and gas production.
If students earn certification, they may move from high school to a job that pays more than minimum wage.
“Not everybody is ready to go to college,” Fuselier said. “One thing I think is a misconception is they can still go to college. They can, but for those kids that are graduating that don’t know what they want to do when they grow up they can work and go to school,” she said.
There are 147 students at the Center. They are bused to the Center from Eunice High School throughout the day.
The juniors at the Center will be the first to graduate in the Jump Start program, she said.
For some, such as welding students who earn certification, that means they may land jobs paying $18 to $19 an hour after graduation.
Fuselier points out that even if a student at the Center decides to go on to college, skills such as carpentry and auto repair, will serve them throughout their lives.