Wasatch High School class of 2022 graduate Derek Colon is a year away from completing his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Utah. His sights are set on a career designing jets or Formula 1 cars. Just four years ago, he was a 12th grader with no experience or quali fications other than a passion for physics. That all changed thanks to his participation in the high school’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies program, or CAPS. The program commemorated its 10th anniversary with a luncheon last Friday at the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus, where the program operates.  The Center for Advanced Professional Studies, a model that began at Blue Valley School District in Overland, Kansas, allows high school juniors and seniors to gain real world experience by working on a project in their field of interest, all while being mentored by professionals in that industry. Organizing the luncheon, for example, was a student-led project. In Colon’s case, he joined the engineering team, which was working on a project assigned by instructor Dr. Edwin Stevens, a retired interventional neuroradiologist from Midway. Stevens wanted to create an electronic shoe insert that would notify the wearer when they placed a certain percentage of their body weight on that foot. He came up with the idea after he broke his leg, and his orthopedist instructed him to put only 25% of his body weight on that leg — which is much easier said than done. The invention is still being refined by this year’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies students. Colon, meanwhile, helped come up with its first iterations. “The first prototypes were really questionable at best,” Colon said, eliciting a laugh from Stevens. “Our method of attaching to your shoe, we had it so you would tie your shoelaces through it. It was really big, and I bet it would be really annoying to have that on you at all times.” Nevertheless, by the end of Colon’s senior year, his group had a device that could read the wearer’s body weight. Colon’s group went on to win regional competitions for career and technical education organizations SkillsUSA and HOSA: Future Health Professionals.  Colon said the Center for Advanced Professional Studies program taught him the engineering process he uses so often at university. Wasatch High School senior Grace Cannon helped organize the Center for Advanced Professional Studies 10th anniversary luncheon, which was itself a program project. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “You just iterate. That’s the big idea I’ve seen in all my engineering classes,” he said. “You make a device at first, and then it doesn’t do what you want it to do or doesn’t work at all. But then, you can learn from it and then build on it and then make it better.” Colon is far from the only student who has benefited from the program, as evidenced by the number of alumni present at the luncheon. Class of 2023 graduate Drew Whimpey participated in Center for Advanced Professional Studies’ Innovate program in his senior year, through which students develop products and businesses. Whimpey said his participation helped him learn how to be a more effective salesman of his videography services. Thanks to the confidence-building that happened in the Center for Advanced Professional Studies, his business, Drew Whimpey Films, has continued to flourish. Now he’s launching a marketing agency tailored to companies in the construction industry called Bonfire Media. Whimpey also serves on the advisory board of the center. He said Wasatch High School’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies program is unlike any other in the country for several reasons: the funding, the instructors and, most importantly, the refusal of founders and directors to “settle” with what they already have.  Wasatch High School senior Tate Wright is a current participant in the Center for Advanced Professional Studies’ engineering pathway. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record That can be seen in the Center for Advanced Professional Studies Director Weston Broadbent’s securing of over $500,000 in grant funding from the Utah State Board of Education in February. The money is being used for new equipment, like broadcasting equipment for student journalists, a computer numerical control machine for manufacturing, a plasma cutter for welding and woodshop and a new Anatomage Table, which simulates 3D models of animals and cadavers that can be digitally dissected. The school district is also purchasing a food truck for culinary students to run and two cars to transport students to and from the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus. Another recent addition to the program was the education pathway. Before the education program was integrated into the Center for Advanced Professional Studies, student internships were purely observational, explained instructor Kasie Payne. Now, students can actually teach other students across the school district. Tom Stone, the Heber City mortgage loan officer who came up with the idea of bringing the program to Wasatch High School, hopes it will continues to improve, much like how Colon improves his inventions with new iterations. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Stone said. Since bringing the center to Wasatch High School, Stone has observed other programs throughout Utah and in Kansas City, St. Louis and Boston. He believes Wasatch High School’s program is the best there is. Whimpey agreed. “Because it’s been around for a decade, it gets overlooked, and it’s just kind of normal. That’s how it is in Heber. But this doesn’t exist anywhere else to this level,” he said. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Tom Stone, left, and Ryan Starks, right, helped bring the Center for Advanced Professional Studies to Wasatch High School. Ryan Starks, the first managing director of the program, noted that it wasn’t always so glamorous.  “You enjoy the 8,100 square feet of beautiful tech space in the (Utah Valley University Wasatch campus) basement now, but when we found it, it was a room full of dusty boxes and old picture frames,” he recalled. “But we had a vision that we could transform this into something greater, something that could be a benefit for generations to come.” Starks became involved in the Center for Advanced Professional Studies when he was the executive director of Heber Valley Tourism and Economic Development. Stone roped him in because he was the perfect liaison to the business community, whose mentoring of students was crucial to the program’s success. Starks went on to become the executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, a role he left last June after six years. “I got to go around the world to Korea, to Japan, to Dubai, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Europe, England, so many places talking about the great State of Utah as an ambassador, as a representative of the state,” he said. “People would often ask, ‘Well, what’s the secret sauce to Utah?’ You can bet your bottom dollar that I talked about Wasatch (Center for Advanced Professional Studies) whenever I could. We have students, we have a community, we have business partners, we have visionary leaders who make amazing things happen.” The post Wasatch High School student professional development program celebrates 10 years  appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less