Maggie Hall was eight years old when her grandmother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

Over the last 11 years, Hall has sat with her grandmother through rounds of treatment aimed at attacking the cancerous cells building up in her bones. She’s seen the bad days – filled with pain and exhaustion – the good days and everything in between. It made her realize she wanted to do more than just be there for support. 

“Those nurses and doctors that went the extra mile to say hi to her, talk to her, see her as a real person, not just a patient or a case – that just made her day so much better,” said Hall, who grew up in Concord. “And she always tells me about those people, so I just want to be able to do that for somebody else.” 

Graduating alongside over 250 other students from Concord Regional Technical Center on Thursday evening, Hall, 17, is well on her way to achieving this goal.

A junior at Concord High School, she obtained her Licensed Nursing Assistant certification after two years of studying health science at CRTC. She has shadowed surgeons, sat by deathbeds, learned how to check vitals, and studied all the medical processes and terminology she could get her hands on. The program also connected her with the assisted living facility Havenwood Heritage Heights, where she works as a personal care aide. Now, she’s about to join Concord Hospital as an LNA, all before even starting her senior year.

“CRTC has really given me the skills to excel and make my dreams come true,” Hall said. “I think, looking back, I was somebody who kind of knew what they wanted to do and didn't know how to get there, to now being somebody who knows exactly what I want to do. I know why I want to do it, and I know how to get there.”

Beyond training future doctors like Hall, CRTC offers 12 two-year programs, including automotive technology, computer engineering, culinary and pastry arts, emergency services and cosmetology. The students graduating on Thursday evening came from 13 schools and around 30 towns in the capital region. They attended classes at CRTC for 90 minutes every day throughout their entire program of studies, taking the bus between their home schools and Concord, balancing their regular academic schedules with internships and extracurricular activities, while still finding time to be teenagers.

Principal Anne Fowler has watched these students not only get a jump-start on skills they’ll need for their careers, but also transform as people.

“It's immediate,” she said. “When they realize that they are empowered to pursue their future goals, and it's right around the corner, there's a level of maturity that takes place, and they become a different student.”

Family and friends packed the bleachers of the Concord High School gymnasium to celebrate the graduates, who sat grouped by program. Throughout the evening as they received recognition, the students cheered for each other and for their instructors, all of whom come directly from the industries about which they teach. In many CRTC programs, students graduate with a certification — or ready to seek one — in their chosen field.

Traditional classwork never engaged Pembroke Academy senior Camden McAlpine the way the construction trades program did.

“It's kind of tough for me to sit in a class and just look at a book all day,” he said. “But with construction trades, I get more into a classroom where I can use my hands and really think of the ideas I'm doing and put them out into a real-world situation.”

Graduating from CRTC, McAlpine will start a four-year apprenticeship at Longchamps Electric, based in Manchester. He began with the company as a student, and he’ll join them full-time as soon as he graduates from Pembroke Academy in two weeks.

“I really like working,” said McAlpine, whose brother studied construction at CRTC before him. “When I’m wiring up the floors like I’m doing now, the eight hours feels like two. It flies by.”

Partnerships with nearby businesses, like McAlpine’s with Longchamps and Hall’s with Havenwood Heritage Heights, lay at the nexus of career and technical education’s place in New Hampshire: readying the next generation of the workforce and connecting them with local businesses navigating a tight labor market. 

Student speaker Lindsey Jones, who also attends Pembroke Academy and studied Education & Behavioral Science at CRTC, thanked the local professionals in the audience for providing workplace opportunities for students and visiting classrooms as guest speakers:  “We wouldn’t be here without you,” she told the crowd.

“Every real-life experience has been authentic, memorable, and most importantly, experiential,” Jones said.

With more students beginning career and technical education as sophomores, Fowler and her team added CRTC+, where students build a personalized expansion of their trade program with work-based partnerships, college courses, and more throughout their final year of school. For Hall, who will participate in CRTC+ next year, this provides the opportunity to shadow surgeons across different medical specialties.

Her experience over the past two years has given her a clear sense of purpose. Inspired by a family friend, her grandmother and the instructors of her program, she wants to continue her studies after finishing high school and eventually become an OBGYN.

In part because of what Hall has learned in health science, her grandmother can still live at home. She didn’t feel well enough to attend the ceremony, but Hall knew she’d return home to a proud hug.

 “She doesn't have to live in a facility because I know the skills, and I know the ways to make her comfortable at home and to care for her at home and help her get the resources,” Hall said.

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com.