MORGANTOWN – If you need work done – you know, on your car, your house – the place to be Wednesday night, Greg Dausch said, was the Hazel and J.W. Ruby Community Center at Mylan Park.
That’s because 162 career technical education completers from the Monongalia County Technical Center’s Class of 2026 went forth in ceremonies there – and Dausch, who is MTEC’s principal, gleefully gave the rundown of just what they’ll be doing in the world in the days to come.
MTEC graduates, as the principal is wont to say, can operate a plasma cutter, bake a cherry pie and drop a new transmission in your great-grandad’s old Dodge.
And all in the same morning.
He happily took the microphone and called roll for the sizeable audience at the community center.
“Before you are seated medical professionals, certified automotive technicians, certified welders, professional designers, licensed electricians, certified educational professionals, culinary experts, future law enforcement officers, technology-trained champions, plumbers and pipefitters and future contractors.”
Then the principal grinned and took a breath.
“They really set the bar.”
MTEC set the pathway for Heidi Sweet, a graduate in the careers in education portal who wants to be a pre-school teacher.
“I just liked the environment,” she said, in the minutes before the start of the program. “My teachers were great. This place was just the right fit for me.”
Aden Walsh agreed with that recipe. He was picking up his certificate of completion in MTEC’s ProStart culinary management program.
Right now, he makes pizzas for a national fast-food chain restaurant, but he wants to be a chef with his name on the front of his own restaurant.
Cooking has drawn him in since he was a little kid, he said.
“Then you get here and you just start learning about every aspect of the business,” said the chef-to-be, who is already famous at MTEC for his soups, stews and chowders. “I can’t wait for what comes next.”
Whatever it is, said Cole Blosser, a welding graduate who made official remarks at the ceremony, he and his fellow graduates will be ready.
“We didn’t just learn ‘facts,’” he said. “We learned how to do things.”
