Diana Dawa, Army Materiel Command public and congressional affairs, visited Anniston Army Depot's Career Academy Dec. 16 to gain footage for AMC's News Dispatch. Here, Dawa and AMC videographer Tyler Bloom film student Holli Eubanks working at the Ca...
ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. - Members from the Army Materiel Command public and congressional affairs office were on depot Dec. 16 to obtain footage of the Career Academy for an upcoming AMC News Dispatch broadcast.
The News Dispatch is AMC's biweekly newscast, which is broadcast over the Internet from AMC's Web site and over the Local Area Network throughout AMC's headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Va.
The depot's Career Academy has already been featured in AMC news material. The News Dispatch piece will showcase the work being performed by cooperative education students-high school seniors and technical college students-studying and receiving on-the-job training in machining, mechanics, welding, pneudraulics and electronics.
Located on the installation but four miles away from the depot's industrial complex, the Career Academy has several classrooms and houses shop equipment for the five trades taught there by instructors-11 depot journeymen, one employee of Gadsden State Community College and one coordinator from the Calhoun County Board of Education.
The academy, a partnership between the depot and the State of Alabama Department of Education, began in 1997 under the name Anniston Army Depot High School Industrial Co-op Program with 40 high school juniors and seniors. Today, the high school class has 100 seniors: 50 students make up the morning class and 50 are enrolled in the afternoon session.
After high school, students in the program begin taking the college courses taught in a separate facility on the depot's campus.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley used the depot's co-op program as an example for those organizations wanting to move technical skills from the schools to the workplace. And, Mercedes Benz in Vance, Ala., used the depot's academy as a model for maintaining a skilled and knowledgeable workforce.
Once the students complete the high school and college-level portions of the program, the potential exists for placement in a permanent job at the depot.
"Our students are very committed not only to learning these trades but to the support they provide to the Soldiers. They're very aware that their work is important to the safety of our troops and feel privileged to support the mission in this way," said Thyris Banks, chief of depot operations.
This News Dispatch edition is scheduled to run in late January, at which time it will be made available on AMC's Web site: www.army.mil/amc.
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