UCT's New Engineering Building Nears Completion Ahead Of Fall Semester
In some ways, Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School, UCT for short, is just like any other high school—it is a place where youngsters learn to become young adults, a new world where they can reinvent themselves, building the person they want to be from the ground up.
But at UCT, the students build much more than just their futures: they are also working to build out the school itself, the most recent accomplishment being a new engineering building that is nearing completion just in time for the start of the new school year.
UCT is made up of the main school building and a number of smaller buildings, each of which is designated for a specific program. Some of the programs do both their classroom and vocational work in the main building, while others are built out. Programs that do have external buildings are HVAC, health sciences, veterinary sciences, information technology, horticulture and marine technology. Engineering is the newest program to receive an external building.
Superintendent Roger Forget said the building project started last fall, with students and staff working year-round to complete it in time for September. It really is a collaborative effort, he said, with students coming from the plumbing, electrical, information technology and carpentry programs to work together on the building.
“That ownership is what keeps it in the shape that it’s in,” Mr. Forget said. “That ownership, that desire, remembering ‘I did this then, I did that here.’ We have graduates who will come up here just to walk on campus and say ‘Wow, what are you doing now? This wasn’t here when I was here, what is this?’”
The new engineering building will soon be complete with state-of-the-art equipment, as well as a classroom area for what UCT calls “related learning.”
“Related is that piece of the academics that is related to that particular shop area,” Mr. Forget said. “So anything that they would be doing—engineering would have a lot of math, it would have an awful lot of CAD (computer-assisted design)—that would happen in here.”
Two brand-new pieces of machinery—a computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine and a lathe—were brought in early and assembled in the building. Next, teams of staff and students will be working to build a loading dock, so vehicles can enter through the back of the building. The final steps will be to make sure that everything is up to code before classes start back up.
“We’re pushing to get it done as we get closer and closer to the school start,” Mr. Forget said.
The first day back for UCT students will be Thursday, September 1, but a handful of students have been working at the school all summer.
“We hire roughly 10 to 15 students to work here in the summer along with staff, working on different buildings and remodeling,” Mr. Forget said, adding that the summer teams work on both new construction and things that need to be fixed up around the campus.
There are about 60 students in the engineering program, spanning all four grades, and students doing all types of engineering—mechanical, electrical, civil, structural—will be working in the building. Most engineering students have not yet seen the new building, which will make going back to classes that much sweeter for students in that program.
“They’ve been waiting on this for a while,” Mr. Forget said. “They continue to flourish in the direction they’re going.”
Part of what makes UCT different is the autonomy that students are given as young professionals, despite still being in the learning phase. They are studying things they are passionate about, so they are happy to be there, Mr. Forget said.
In any of UTC’s 15 programs, students do a combination of academic and vocational coursework that better positions them to enter the working world in their industry after graduating. For example, in the HVAC building, students work on real industry brand trainer equipment, which allows them to familiarize themselves with the same types of equipment they will encounter in their real world work. They even have a chance to encounter real world work through the school’s co-op program, which is open to upperclassmen.
“When you get out in the field, you’re ready for anything that comes your way,” Mr. Forget said. “That’s a piece of what Upper Cape does: I believe we instill a work ethic in students… For the kids, it’s about reinventing themselves and taking this thing and making it totally their own, assuming responsibility and accountability for it.”
This fall, UCT is welcoming its biggest-ever class of freshmen, with about 235 students. Although UCT was back full time and in-person last year, Mr. Forget said that this year feels different.
“This year really feels as though we’re back,” he said. “Without masks, without any of it. Normal, whatever that is.”
Staff are excited to get back to work, he said, and students likely are, too.
“It’s a melting pot,” Mr. Forget said of UCT. “It does allow itself to be a fresh start for everybody, and I think that’s an important piece for all students. They’re all looking for that.”
Come the fall, engineering students will be tasked with aiding in the planning and building of a new football field/stadium area, the first big undertaking that will occur in the new building.
“We want to make it unique, like we do everything else here,” Mr. Forget said. “Really, this is not your grandfather’s, not your father’s vocational school. None of them across the commonwealth are that way; they’re all morphed and changed. But are they all like Upper Cape? I’d like to say no.”