August 26, 2023 – The Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) held a team building “Olympics” on Friday the 25th.
CART is a “comprehensive, state-of-the-art school” where high school juniors and seniors from both CUSD and FUSD take half-day courses in addition to attending their high schools.
The Center for Advanced Research and Technology is organized around four career clusters: Professional Sciences, Engineering, Advanced Communications, and Global Economics.
“Within each cluster are several career-specific laboratories in which students complete industry-based projects and receive academic credit for advanced English, science, math, and technology,” states their website, cart.org.
For the CART Olympics, students formed 13 career-specific labs that worked together as teams. The school year has barely begun—and in less than two weeks, these teams created costumes, cheers, and skits together for their Olympics.
There was a morning session from 8 to 10 am, and an afternoon session from 1 to 3 pm.
In addition to their cheers and skits, the students also participated in a series of “relay” events. All of the activities were awarded and judged by CART Chief Executive Officer Rick Watson, Ed.D.
We were there to see the first afternoon session. Participating in the 1 o’clock CART Olympics were the following teams: Psych Lab, DME (Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship), BioTech, and EMR (Engineering, Manufacturing & Robotics).
Even though the school year barely started, the students had already formed solid teams. These young adults were invested—actively participating, smiling, laughing, and having so much fun. There was a clear sense of camaraderie and joy.
“Our students spend the first several days of school practicing these habits of mind. For instance we have: initiate, create, persist, collaborate, reflect—there’s a number of others. They take those and they put them into practice each day in class, and they put them into practice when they make their posters and their banners and their costumes, and in the event,” said Aaron Love, Digital Media and Graphic Design Teacher at CART.
“The idea is that all of these students will work together using these habits to be successful together. We think those are things that if they implement into their lives, relationships, and careers—that they will also be successful.”
We imagine that most people walk out of the CART facility feeling lighter, more energized, and hopeful for the world our youth will build.
CART is a pillar of our community. An institution of learning and creating. CART invests in the younger generation. That is a testament to not only the students, but also the incredible staff. Leaders, mentors, and teachers who care are crucial for young people. CART has that.
One day soon, our community, our nation, our world will be in their hands. When asked what they like about CART, one of the students mentioned something along the lines of “I like being surrounded by people who want to be successful.”
CART is full of bright minds and go-getters. We can’t wait to see what else they do this school year.