How Del Campo High School’s animation CTE pathway is preparing students for their future careers

In a quiet classroom at Del Campo High School, students lean over their computer screens, sketching characters, building storyboards and bringing their creative visions to life in the school’s animation Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway.

Del Campo’s animation CTE pathway is a program that introduces students to the hands-on world of digital storytelling and design. From environmental art to character animation to storyboarding, students in the pathway gain experience that’s aligned with careers in animation and media. 

Syler Apis, the animation CTE teacher, said that classes like these helped to shape her own career path when she was in high school. She said she had been placed in an accelerated animation program without having taken previous animation classes and wanted to make sure that her own students would get the chance to learn the basics before being thrown into some of the larger projects. 

“I take what I really liked when I was in school and I break it down way more than when I was a student,” Apis said. 

Apis said that although the program is in its beginning stages, she hopes to soon include opportunities for students to create short films, collaborate on projects and submit work to student film festivals.

“At the beginning of the year, we do really basic projects, and we stack these processes on top of each other,” she said. “By the end of it, we put together all the pieces. It’s exciting to see when they really start to understand all the fundamentals.”

She’s also working with students to build some of the other skills critical to creative industries, like communication and critique.

“There’s a lot of critiquing each other’s work so that they get comfortable,” said Apis. “That’s how it is in the real world.”

Only in its second semester, the program is already making a strong impact. As it continues to grow, plans are underway to build partnerships and expand student opportunities.

Del Campo student Jayleen initially signed up for a different class but switched to animation after deciding that she wanted to pursue a career at an animation studio in the future. 

“This class helped me realize some of the steps that go into animation, working at studios, finding colleges, and how to improve my art and skills,” she said. “This class isn’t just for animation. It also teaches you audio editing and computer graphics. There are a lot of things in this class, not just editing, that can help with job opportunities.”

For Del Campo student Rene, the experience was unexpected. She was placed into the class and at first considered switching out but quickly discovered how rewarding animation could be.

“I never really looked at animation as a career before,” she said. “I thought it was too hard or too tedious, but once I was in the class, it was way more fun than I thought.”

Apis said that she feels a sense of pride when students get excited to show her their projects and talk about their futures with animation. 

“Sometimes they’ll go home and be like, ‘Look what I did on break!” she said. “It’s the best feeling ever, especially when they start talking about wanting to go to certain schools to study art and animation.”

Apis said the best piece of advice she can instill in her students is something that stuck with her when she was in school.

“Art is a journey. No matter where you are in your artistic journey, you can always keep going forward and up. There’s always a way to be better at something, and you should never be comfortable being comfortable,” she said.