Summer means a break from school for most Alaska kids, but some incoming freshmen in Anchorage are getting a jumpstart earning high school credit through a cosmetology course at King Tech High School.
About 15% of Anchorage School District students took classes this summer. Elementary and middle schoolers can study Indigenous culture, develop career-focused skills or continue to learn the English language. Many high school students recover credits from courses they failed during the school year, and over 400 8th graders earned high school credits early, like the King Tech students taking cosmetology.
The cosmetology lab at King Tech looks like a beauty parlor. Rows of salon chairs stand in the middle with sinks on one end and a line of mannequin heads along the wall. On a Thursday afternoon in May, instructor Normandy Vesel taught a group of 16 students how to apply a moisturizing scalp treatment…