![\"Litzau7_TF\"](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/08\/Litzau-inline-crop_TF-300x200.jpg\")
The school\u2019s curriculum is organized around courses designed to prepare students as responders to natural disasters and community emergencies, but that includes a wide range of skills and certifications ranging from earning a commercial driver\u2019s license to becoming certified to handle hazardous materials.<\/p>\n
Litzau, who grew up in Milwaukee, got into education at an older age than most. After finishing his undergraduate degree in business and a master\u2019s degree in real estate development at UW-Madison, he returned to Milwaukee to work in urban redevelopment. Eventually, he got involved with the Milwaukee Community Service Corps, first as a volunteer then eventually as the executive director. The corps, modeled on the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, provided programs to help at-risk youth and hard-to-employ teens.<\/p>\n
Litzau was instructing young people in career and life skills when he decided he needed more education.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy background was in bricks-and-mortar construction development,\u201d Litzau said. \u201cI realized that I didn\u2019t really have a background in education, and yet so much of what we were doing was education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working with Nancy Rice, associate professor of exceptional education at 51ÁÔÆæ, he did his master\u2019s thesis on career academies, looking at what programs were available for young adult students and where there were gaps. From that, he developed his idea of a career academy that would combine experiential learning with academics.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris’s background in business,\u00a0education, and community service has allowed him to see where these fields can come together to help students, businesses, and communities,\u201d Rice said.\u00a0\u201cHis timing is great because we are at a perfect storm of moving from vocational ed to CTE (Career and Technical Education). People are looking for alternatives to traditional education pathways, and Chris\u2019 CERT is exactly the type of innovative program that communities and businesses are interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Litzau established CERT as a Racine choice school in September 2015, opening with 13 students. The school is under the umbrella of the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps.<\/p>\n
Learning skills, working with professionals<\/h3>\n
Students do real projects in a variety of fields, working alongside master electricians to install solar panel arrays or using chainsaws to clear undergrowth with the Bureau of Land Management, according to Litzau. They also have the opportunity to learn cutting edge technology, working with cars that run on compressed natural gas, for example.<\/p>\n
One course that\u2019s just been rolled out qualifies students for an official designation in hazardous waste operations, required by the EPA.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you\u2019re a PhD \u2013 you have to have this credential before you are able to set foot on properties where there may be some contamination to clean up,\u201d said Litzau. \u201cIt usually runs about $800 to $1,200 in the marketplace, and our students get it for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students are mostly over the age of 18, and are all in the 12th grade. They have to earn 10 credits to graduate in a combination of class time and demonstrated skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot more hands-on learning,\u201d said Daniel Lanouette Jr., 18, one of the students in the program, who likes learning the practical applications of subjects like math and has earned several certifications that will help him in future. \u201cThere\u2019s still class, but it\u2019s helping me move in a better direction to get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program is affiliated with AmeriCorps, allowing students to accumulate service hours for their work, earning money to further their education.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time they finish, they can have $1,000 or $1,500 in their education account that they can use to go to Gateway, MATC, 51ÁÔÆæ or UW-Parkside,\u201d said Litzau.<\/p>\n
Going on to college<\/h3>\n
Student Deshawn McGrone, 21, is already planning to use what he\u2019s earned to take the next career steps. He wasn\u2019t interested in high school, but CERT\u2019s combination of study and learning while earning appealed to him. \u201cMy experience has been really good. I\u2019m looking forward to enrolling in college,\u201d he said. He\u2019d like to major in ecology and a foreign language, perhaps Korean.<\/p>\n
Students have the experience of working and taking classes with professionals in a variety of fields, Litzau said. This summer, for example, CERT students are taking a class on permeable pavement installation, teaming with Spancrete and other contractors to install pre-cast permeable pavement panels in the parking lot of a housing development for the homeless in Racine.<\/p>\n
Those experiences of working with professionals \u201ccan be very empowering to young people who\u2019ve grown up in neighborhoods where there is high unemployment and few connections to people in the real world of work,\u201d said Litzau.<\/p>\n
He hopes the Racine school will be a pilot for future programs, he said, with the goal of encouraging other urban school systems to open similar schools. The school is getting a regular flow of inquiries from potential students, according to Litzau.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I view our program is we’re creating a series of doors and our students can choose to walk through one or go on to the next one,\u201d said Litzau. \u201cBut either way they’re going to have those credentials that allow them to walk through one of those doors. We\u2019re talking about economic freedom, opportunities to succeed in life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris Litzau, who earned his master\u2019s degree in exceptional education from 51ÁÔÆæ, saw a need for an alternative high school that teaches career skills. So he did something about it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":36239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[249,250],"section":[246,259],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[167,347,153,148],"class_list":["post-36238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-engagement","tag-student-success","section-business-world-affairs","section-education","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-graduate","uwmnews-feed-education"],"yoast_head":"\n