Queen Creek Unified career program helped graduate

For Queen Creek High School alumna Alicia Kalafus, the district’s career and technical education satellite program provided her with more than just a class.

The Queen Creek Unified District program helped her to acquire real-world skills, early exposure to potential careers and the freedom to explore what excited her in a low-pressure environment — all on her own campus.

She called the program the launchpad to a fulfilling career, as she discovered her love for film and digital photography almost by accident while participating in a sports broadcast during her sophomore year.

“I went behind the camera and I just fell in love with it,” she stated in a district press release. “And the next year, my sophomore year, I told my counselor I wanted to join film, and the film teacher was absolutely stoked to have me join the team.”.

Before stepping into the world of visual arts, Kalafus had been involved in HOSA–Future Health Professionals. While she respected the program and the experiences it offered, she realized it was not her passion.

“It ended up being something I’ve made a whole career out of. And maybe I would have liked being a nurse. But without (career and technical education), I would never have figured that out otherwise,” she stated.

Flexibility is one of the valuable aspects of the satellite program because students can test out different industries and career paths through hands-on, skills-based learning, often before they’ve even finished high school.

For Kalafus, the experience was eye-opening.

“When you actually are doing it, and you can put that on your resume that you ran a livestream or that you did editing, that gives you more than what other people coming out of high school may have to get a job or go to college,” Kalafus added.

Through the program, she also earned industry certifications, including Adobe software and camera operation credentials, giving her a competitive edge as she entered the workforce.

Today, Kalafus works as a freelance video engineer, traveling across the country for live event productions.

“CTE is really important, especially for kids like me who didn’t know that this was an option,” Kalafus further stated in the release. “And now I can’t imagine life without video, without editing, without doing what I’m doing. It’s something I’m truly passionate about.”