New Philadelphia, Ohio (WJER) - Some Buckeye Career Center students are getting to put their skills into action by assisting with the future home of the Noah’s Hope Child Advocacy Center.  

The CAC is leasing-to-own a property on East High Avenue that’s being renovated. Director Vanessa Stergios says Buckeye instructor Jeremy Burdick split his senior electrical systems technology students into two competing groups to look over the property as part of a project.

“He gave them the assignment of ‘I want you to pretend like you are a contractor or a home inspector going in and locate all the problems, document them, take pictures of them, find what code they’re in violation of and what recommendations you would make to change and the reasons behind that,’” she says. 

Stergios says the property needs to function as a work site but also must be updated to best serve the kids and their service dog, Alexa.

“We want this home to welcoming to children and for them to feel very comfortable because when they come to talk to us, it’s about very difficult things that have happened to them, things that adults don’t even want to talk about,” she says.

Stergios says she looks forward to utilizing other classroom labs from the career center for work on the renovation.

“We couldn’t be happier with the partnership we’re developing with Buckeye. It is 100 percent a win-win for the students, for the child advocacy center, for the community,” she says. 

Stergios hopes to have the center renovated before the end of this school year.  

WJER RADIO