LEBANON — Celebrating its 25th anniversary today, the Warren County Career Center shows the opportunities that vocational schooling can bring.

        Programs at the WCCC can help students gain college credit, internships, licenses, certification and nationally accredited skills. Besides business, industrial and computer courses, the WCCC offers a four-year aerospace program with the Warren County Airport.

        Last year, the center served 6,000 adults and graduated nearly 300 high school students.

        Among other honors, in 1999, Norwich City College in England invited the WCCC to its international conference on technical education. In 2000, Sprint named the WCCC a national Sprint Showcase School, one of 20 in the country, for the school's commitment to technology.

        WCCC's superintendent of three years, Dr. Vince Roessner, said community support and staff dedication makes the school so successful.

        “We have people here that are committed to the total success of human beings,” Dr. Roessner said. “You feel good being here.”

        The center serves the Franklin, Kings, Lebanon, Little Miami, Springboro and Waynesville school districts. Dr. Roessner said Mason would soon partner with the WCCC to allow Mason students to attend the aerospace academy.

        Adult tuition and federal, state and local taxes support the center's $9 million annual budget.

        Barbara Richardson, 61, former WCCC student, is now a personnel officer at the Lebanon Correction Facility.

        She will be a guest speaker at today's anniversary ceremony.

        Mrs. Richardson, then 43, entered a WCCC medical clerk program in 1984 after her family was forced to sell its dairy cattle. Facing a lack of income, Mrs. Richardson decided to follow in the footsteps of her two children, both WCCC graduates.

        “When I saw the ad for classes for adults, I knew what caliber of training they (her children) were getting,” Mrs. Richardson said.

        “I think without it, I never would have advanced to where I am today.”

        The ceremony, followed by an open house, will be at 4 p.m. today at the school at 3545 N. Ohio 48.

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