Tri Star students celebrate their success as many graduates are starting their careers

MERCER COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - Tri Star Career Compact's students celebrate the end of high school and the beginning of adulthood.

Around 230 students graduated from Tri Star on Friday. In the last five years, the career tech school has seen a 66% increase in enrollment, partly due to the high demand from local employers for new workers who already come with industry experience in fields like education, construction, and medicine. Many students who enter and complete the programs are highly motivated, hard-working, and have clear goals for their futures.

"I plan on going to the University of Cincinnati online to get my associates degree for early childhood care and administration. Mrs. Diller did a good job at like doing lesson plans because I know some college kids that don't even know how to do certain boxes, and we've only been doing it for two years. And just having better prepared in college and being a step ahead just knowing what I'm into," said Kenadie Ervin, graduating from Tri Star's early childhood education program.

Yesterday, about sixty graduating seniors accepted job offers, like Braden Fetters, who will go from part-time to full-time with his current employer, Omega Metals.

"So basically, what we do there is we lay out duct and piping for bigger buildings, such as school buildings; it's a lot of the stuff I work on. So I just basically help the main guys there," said Bradyn Fetters, who is graduating from Tri Star's engineering technology program.

"We have several companies that will only hire Tri Star kids; some will hire only career tech kids because they're so much more advanced, and the kids know what they want to do, and it saves them training costs. We have several companies; just last week, coming in said we're only hiring Tri Star students, and then several yesterday, they hired six or seven of them," commented Tim Buschur, director of Tri Star Career Compact.

Tri Star also offers a unique scholarship to students who go straight from graduation to work in the trades to help them buy their own tools and equipment.