Two Sam Houston High School students in the San Antonio Independent School District are already receiving job offers and demonstrating the possible future of K-12 education after earning associate degrees in information technology and cybersecurity through the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) program.
Eighteen-year-old Sam Houston High valedictorian Nicolas Alonzo and 17-year-old Emily Guardiola already received their degrees from St. Philips College, which partnered with the school for the program. The two will walk again on June 13 for the inaugural graduation ceremony for the P-TECH program, which started in 2019.
In addition to a full high school schedule, each completed a full college schedule, participated in internships, attended events and heard speakers to gain experience in the competitive field.
They also each earned industry certifications in CompTIA, IETF, Security Plus and Microsoft Office, qualifying them for jobs ranging from $70,000 to $90,000 right out of high school, according to Carrie Turner-Gray, the coordinator of P-TECH, a special school system within Sam Houston High School.
In addition to adding value to the education of the students, who plan on attending college next year, the program is an example of the growing school choice options offered by the traditional school district. This comes at a key time for SAISD, which is experiencing a decline in enrollment that is necessitating the elimination of staff positions and more cuts likely in the future. But programs like P-TECH have attracted students, including Alonzo, from neighboring districts.
Born and raised in the Southside Independent School District, Alonzo has commuted every day for school over the last four years.
Guardiola plans to pursue a career in cybersecurity and work for the National Security Agency (NSA) someday, recalling one of the first experiences she had in the program.
“I see myself … working in a government job,” she said. “One speaker who inspired me freshman year was from the NSA. If I can, I would love to work for them.”
There are another 34 students in the program pursuing credentials, including 18-year-old Josiah James, who is graduating from Sam Houston in June with both a high school diploma and a Level 1 certificate in Information Technology and Cybersecurity.
James aims to become a pen tester, or penetration tester — a job in which experts purposely hack and find vulnerabilities in a company’s infrastructure in order to better defend against similar attacks from bad actors. With that, he also hopes to build a bigger network of relationships in the field.
“I’ll probably find myself just being excited just to talk to any businesses and partners and just create a bigger network of friendships or whatever relationships that you can have because I know that having friends of any kind is very important,” he said.
James and Alonzo are both attending UTSA next year, and see themselves entering the workforce as ethical hackers one day. Guardiola will be attending Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
Turner-Gray also highlighted that the program offers an opportunity to work with vendors and gain certifications, which can help with job prospects.
She said the program offers students a significant advantage over their peers.
“If you really want your child to get that edge on everybody else, to get to a good school and to get the highest grades in school and be in the top 10, you have to look for a program like this,” she said. “I just feel like them … seeing what college truly is and what rigor truly is is probably one of the best things that we’ve ever offered students in any district.”
The success of the program is also an indication of the future model of K-12 education, as districts look to fill a skills gap that has grown between the needs of a technologically advanced workforce and the supply of certified workers that can meet those needs.
At a panel discussion earlier this year, Sam Houston computer science teacher Zakia Abbas said programs like P-TECH are an obvious solution to that problem.
“I believe that the skills gap is going to really shrink because these students are really working very well with the industry partners. They’re literally looking for more things to do,” she said. “We partnered with St. Philip’s College, and a large part of our college courses are a lot of independent learning … and these are self-paced. And by the end of the year, these students are Cisco CCNA, certified CompTIA certified, and really ready to enter the workforce without even a bachelor’s degree.”
Students are learning so rapidly, that even the teachers are finding new things to learn in the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity.
“We really sometimes underestimate them, because as teachers, we learn a lot from these students as well,” she said. “And I believe we’re teaching them relevant skills that they can take with them and apply to all sorts of situations across all curriculums, across all platforms.”
