With a new school year beginning next week for many area schools the Kirkwood Washington Regional Center reminds students it’s time to start thinking about the next step in their education.

Tera Pickens, Director of the Kirkwood Washington Regional Center tells KCII news that they offer many different courses to serve different populations in the area. Programs offered include industry speakers for middle school students, college credit courses for high school students, traditional college courses, adult literacy programs and tracks for high school completion.

For those in high school, Pickens shared a road map for what they can be doing to prepare for the next level of education, “Junior and senior years really are busy for a high school student. First and foremost we hope that they would be exploring all of their Career Academy options here at the Regional Center, and enrolling in classes here to figure out if a certain career area is going to be a good fit for them. Also, junior year is really when students are starting to narrow down college choices, going on campus visits, taking the ACT and SAT, and working with their high school counselor to do career inventory testing. Senior year is more of a narrowing down decision year. Freshmen and sophomores have a little more time, but it’s never too early to get connected with your high school guidance counselor.”

The first day of class at the Kirkwood Washington Regional Center is Monday, August 20th.