Kessler Creative and Frank H. Peterson Academies: Partnering for Student Success

Frank H. Peterson Academies, a distinguished career-focused school in Jacksonville, Florida, is making strides in preparing students for their future professions. The school offers a variety of academies, each specializing in different fields, to give the students an opportunity to explore and pursue their passions.

To further enhance this initiative, the school has partnered with us at Kessler Creative. Three students from the academy currently work directly in production, applying the concepts and techniques they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world projects.

Leah Crawford, Lead CTE Teacher at Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology, describes her experience both with the school and Kessler Creative.

KC: What is the mission of Frank H. Peterson Academies?

Our school’s mission is to provide an equitable, high quality academic and career-technical education, and support the development of our students’ work ethic, personal responsibility, and respect for others

KC: Could you elaborate on the types of experiences and opportunities at Frank H. Peterson?

Frank H. Peterson is one of Duval County’s only ‘Wall-to-Wall’ career academy schools, meaning every student in our building is enrolled in one of 8 different career academies! We offer programs in the areas of Agriscience & Veterinary Tech Assisting, Aviation, Automotive, Communications, Cosmetology, Culinary, Early Childhood Education and Robotics.

We also are one of the only schools to have all academies in our building earn the ‘Master Academy’ designation from the district. This means we offer a variety of experiences and training that helps set us, and our students, apart. For example, most academies offer real career experience through on-campus businesses. Our school has a restaurant, hair salon and automotive shop open to the public for select days and events. We also have a preschool open for regular enrollment run by our Early Childhood Academy Students! In our communication’s academy, we design and create school apparel and other small goods. There really is no experience like Peterson! You get real job training and college prep all under one roof.

As our principal always says, it’s our goal that every student graduates with a college acceptance in one hand, and a job offer in the other!

KC: Could you provide some instances of successful career transitions students have made based on their learnings from Frank H. Peterson?

We have an extensive network of Peterson Alumni who have gone on to do some amazing things! From the communications academy, we have many graduates who now work as game designers, graphic designers, fine artists, web designers and entrepreneurs. Some companies our alumni go on to work for include Boeing, Apple, Bank of America, Duval Ford and the list goes on!

Currently, we have 3 students working locally at Kessler Creative on OJT (on-the-job training) while they complete high school. One of those students is a graduating senior who plans to continue working there while pursuing design at the college level. She’s excited to be working somewhere so closely related to her desired field and hopes it opens opportunities for her!  

KC: In what ways has your relationship with Kessler Creative been beneficial to the school?

As an industry, a lot of current communications work is digitally driven, so it’s easy for students to not recognize the career opportunities in communications that go beyond the computer screen. As a partner, Kessler has helped our students realize the variety of job opportunities in Communications right in our ‘back yard’. Knowing we have partners like Kessler in the area actively seeking talent for jobs that involve production and printing that draws on their design training helps them connect the dots and gives them a goal to reach for.

As a bonus, it’s been a great tool as an instructor when students want to say, ‘it’s not like I’m getting paid for this!’ and I get to say ‘But you could! We have Kessler!’
 

KC: In what ways does Frank H. Peterson Academies ensure that students receive ongoing support and guidance as they navigate their career paths in the creative industry, both during and after their training programs?

During their high school career, students in our communications academy participate in multiple events and activities to prepare them for creative careers. In their first years, students create career plans to guide their college and career research throughout high school and focus on creating work in Adobe programs and other software. We also host several career fairs throughout the year for students to network with potential employers, as well as take field trips to colleges that partner with the academy, like Flagler and Jacksonville University. Alongside their technical training, students also complete soft skills training through the Florida Ready to Work Curriculum.

Finally, by the time a student reaches their senior year, they combine all their professional and technical experience into a capstone project. For this project, our students are given a fictitious client with a set of goals, and they design and create a professional brand package to present to members of our Advisory Board and faculty. This presentation gives them a chance to show business partners that they are ready to work!

Post graduation, we continue to support our students with alumni connections and often invite alumni back to Peterson to continue the cycle of meeting and supporting our students, myself being one of them! I was a member of the communications advisory board and was notified of a teaching opening. So, for some of us, it comes full circle!