Every year, several Verona High School students go to cosmetology school after graduation. Bunny Vasile did it before she graduated with the class of 2016, and for free. She’s got a plan to use skills that she loves–hair and makeup–to get the career of her dreams: large animal veterinarian.
“My mom has taken to calling me Dr. Bunny,” says Vasile, whose given first name is actually Victoria.
Beginning with her sophomore year at VHS, Vasile opted to split her day between the high school and the Essex County Vocational Technical Schools system. After taking her core graduation requirements at VHS in the morning, Vasile would hop a free bus and head out to West Caldwell Tech to put in a full afternoon toward the 1,200 hours of training needed for her cosmetology license. “My best friend Diana [Flores, VHS 2016 salutatorian] pushed me along and helped me to be a better student,” Vasile says.
Vo-tech education is an option open to all VHS students (both special education and the general student body), though fewer than a dozen choose it in any given year. The four campuses of the Essex County system offer 30 career and technical programs, several of which lead to a job-ready professional certificate or licensing, like cosmetology, certified nursing assistant, information technology and automotive technology. When the county opens the new Donald M. Payne Sr. Vocational Technical School in Newark in 2018, students will be able to train in radio and TV production, music technology, architectural drafting and design, accounting technology, applied horticulture, green energy and a wide range of construction trades from carpentry to plumbing.
“There is no cost to the students who attend our school district,” says Dr. James Pedersen, superintendent of the Essex County Vocational Technical Schools. “Tuition is paid for by the home district, and subsidized with state and federal grants.” Pedersen notes that, in addition to opening Payne Tech, the county will also be renovating West Caldwell Tech in the next few years to enhance programs at that school.
The vo-tech program often includes internships, something that VHS introduced in 2015 as the senior Capstone project. Vasile wanted to participate in Capstone, but not in cosmetology. In addition to attending two schools, she was working part-time at the West Caldwell Animal Hospital, an opportunity she discovered through a conversation with her vo-tech bus driver. She approached Turtle Back Zoo but was rebuffed because it usually only accepts graduate school students. She happened to voice her frustration to the West Caldwell Tech administration, and the doors to a zoo internship were opened. Vasile got to shadow the zookeepers and saw the zoo’s animal hospital.
“I learned so much,” says Vasile. “I got a behind-the-scenes look that most people don’t see. The internship clarified what I wanted to do: I would love to be a vet at a zoo.”
To get to that goal, Vasile will first attend Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where she will major in pre-veterinary studies. She’ll be working her way through school in a salon, either on campus or in the surrounding community. And she has already begun to research graduate schools for veterinarians, which, she says, can be harder to get into than med school.
Vasile has few regrets about the hard work that she has put in to get this far, although she might have liked to have explored more of VHS’ clubs. (The Essex Tech schools field teams in many sports.) She did, however, apply her hair and makeup skills to the VHS productions of Shrek, Legally Blonde and the Evening of Zombie Comedies. “Having a cosmetology license,” she says, “will always give me something I love to do.”
VHS students can learn more about about the vo-tech system from their guidance counselor or the Essex County Vocational Technical Schools‘ website. There is a county-wide vo-tech open house every November. Since 2010, MyVeronaNJ.com has profiled the college and career paths of many VHS graduates. You can read them all by clicking on the “What’s Next” tag.
It is about time that VoTech is recognized as a wonderful opportunity, NOT ONLY FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS. It is the best kept secret in Verona, but what a lot of parents don’t realize is that they have fantastic programs. Their Graphic Arts Dept. is outstanding and they have the most up-date-machinery, software and computers, even more technologically improved than VHS. Why don’t more VHS students go there and take advantage of this opportunity? It seems that the idea is VoTech only caters to the special education population and that is a huge mistake. Maybe if more parents checked it out more students would be able to benefit from a superior education, both from VHS and VoTech. Congratulations to Bunny on realizing that she could improve herself and get the best education possible by not following the normal general ed/college path. Best of luck to her.
I sincerely believe not enough Verona students take advantage of the offerings available it the various vo-tech campuses in Essex county. As a middle school teacher I work with dozens of students a year whom I believe would be very well suited for vo-tech education.