Louisiana Technical College is attracting three sets of students.

First is the traditional, college-age student who is looking for something other than a four-year campus.

Second is the older, non-traditional student. This could be someone who attended school years ago, entered the workforce or raised a family, and is now looking for a new path to follow. It also includes persons in transition following the loss of a job or in search of additional training to help them keep their current job.

Advertisement

Third is a non-traditional student of a different genre �” the dually-enrolled student. These are high school students who are attended traditional high school classes, but who are also taking college level courses at LTC.

At LTC-Sullivan, there are 696 such students from three public systems �” Bogalusa City and Washington and St. Tammany parishes.

“That’s a tribute to the school systems and the staff here (at LTC),” Wainwright said.

Dual enrollment is an area, he said, where Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state’s department of education, is putting a lot of attention.

“We’re working closely with them to be able to expand our program offerings,” he said.

Wainwright said the most important aspect of dual enrollment is that students are able to apply their learning.

“Take math,” he said. “You use it drafting, weights and measures, machine shop �- When it’s not relevant to high school kids, we lose them. We lose our best and brightest and we can’t afford to do that.”/