CHARLESTON, W.Va. — George Washington High School has been named a semifinalist for the 2017 ACT College & Career Readiness Campaign National Exemplar award.
The school in Charleston is one of four schools nationwide to receive the honor.
“We’re very pleased,” said George Aulenbacher, principal at George Washington High. “We have kids that work very, very hard and teachers that work very hard each and every day and our counselors, so it’s a great honor for our state I believe.”
ACT looked at college, AP and career prep classes from schools in all 50 states. One school was selected from each state.
GW was selected from West Virginia. The school then advanced to the national round.
The school provides students with wide variety of college level classes. There are 18 AP classes, 15 college prep classes, internships and more. Freshmen students can participate in a STEM class which culminates in a group project and a visit to local businesses.
“Over the last couple years, we’ve transitioned into a STEM offering (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) and all of our freshmen go through that. Hopefully, that will lead into additional AP courses and additional college courses,” Aulenbacher said.
Teachers and staff have developed a plan for student success after high school. Aulenbacher said GW is unique because they focus preparing kids for careers, not just college.
“The academic side is really important, but there’s also the work side that we’re trying to build on,” he said. “We want to look at what the end result is. We hope that a kid gets a job once they graduate from college. I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job of reaching out to local businesses and seeing what they’re looking for.”
GW will find out if they’re the national winner by Friday afternoon. If GW is selected as the winner, they will receive their award in October in Iowa City, Iowa.