This story is featured in the new Core Plus annual report. In the Core Plus 2021-22 school year annual report you’ll learn about success stories from Core Plus aerospace, construction and maritime programs across Washington state.
Core Plus Aerospace sparked an interest in advanced manufacturing and led to careers for three recent high school graduates.
“Taking the Core Plus class helps high school students really find their ideal career,” said Tanzania Mowatt-Burleson, a 2022 graduate from the Seattle Skills Center at Rainier Beach High School and a 2022 Core Plus Aerospace Boeing summer intern. “It really gives you a sense of choice and identity of what you want to do in your actual life.”
The hands-on skills that Tanzania learned in her Core Plus Aerospace class at Seattle Skills Center prepared her for her summer internship and the guest speakers helped her visualize her experience at Boeing.
“A lot more students should take Core Plus Aerospace,” Tanzania said. “It puts your foot in the door of really great careers. It gave me goals to look forward to.”
After completing the summer internship, Tanzania was offered and accepted a position at Boeing as an Assembler/Installer. Like Tanzania, Ethan Patze and his brother Kadem were also offered and accepted positions at Boeing after completing Core Plus Aerospace at Lynnwood High School and participating in the summer internship. Ethan’s career goal is to be a leader at Boeing and Kadem’s career goal is to be an aerospace engineer.
“Core Plus Aerospace in high school was awesome,” Kadem said. “It was the most fun class I had in high school, taught me really cool skills, and gave me a good opportunity to succeed in things I wanted to do after high school.”
Ethan said that along with learning to use tools, he also learned math, science, English, coding, computer-aided design and 3D printing skills in his Core Plus Aerospace class.
“I encourage all my friends to take Core Plus Aerospace,” Ethan said. “I’ve learned a lot of manufacturing skills that I’ll use in my career. It’s a great program. It’s awesome.”