LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A dozen Fairdale High School students are getting hands-on construction experience as they build a new training center for the Fairdale Fire Department.
Dylan Walker, a sophomore at Fairdale High School, is one of those students. And he couldn't be happier.
"This makes me want to get up every morning and go to school," he said. "We're basically just forming up concrete."
"And we're gonna continuously be building onto it," said Capt. Carrie Blevins of the Fairdale Fire Department. "This is just the first project that they're gonna be doing."
Dylan Walker, a sophomore at Fairdale High School in April 2022.
Walker said he's in it for the long haul.
"We've been doing this for a couple of months now," Walker said. "Everything that you see on the ground right now we all built."
The students are working bulldozers and excavators, moving dirt, digging up the ground and preparing the way for what comes next.
"Right now, the foundation is the key to getting the Conex boxes," Blevins said.
Walker said he's proud of his high school -- and this is why.
"Fairdale High School is up-and-coming," he said. "If you want to go to trade and you want to go work, this is the place to come to."
And he said it's a privilege to be a part of this special group.
"These guys out here are the best," he said. "This is the top of the classes. These are the kids who get their work turned in -- get their grades up."
Blevins agrees, adding that the students who are learning this trade will have a bright future -- and plenty of employment opportunities ahead of them.
"The ones that are in these programs -- they want to be there," she said. "And they have goals to be somebody when they get out. So this is just the first step."
That's why Walker said he's here.
"There's no other class that can really teach you how to go out and be in the workforce like this class can," he said. "We are all hands-on, tools-on. I mean everything here is all hands-on learning."
Blevins added that, because of these special skills and hands-on experience, these students will have a leg up on others in their class.
"This is not stuff that normal high school kids are doing," Blevins said. "This is a special program."
That said, it isn't all dirt piles and Conex boxes. Walker admitted that it's easy to get discouraged when you're working on a complex project -- but that's not an option.
"Patience is important, because if you mess up and make a mistake, and you get frustrated, you're just gonna make another mistake," he said.
But if the project continues on track, Blevins said she'll be impressed. In fact, she already is.
"It's been amazing seeing what they're doing."
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