We asked students why they’re excited to be back. These were their answers

A.W. Beattie will host Back to School Night for students and families 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29 at the career center.

Deer Lakes senior Emma Fritch, who is in the Cosmetology program, already has a job in a Cheswick salon. She’s also ready to get back to learning at the career center where her favorite part of class is meeting and serving clients.

Emma’s goals include furthering her experience at A.W. Beattie as much as she can, completing her hours and passing the state board exam to work full-time after graduation.

“I’m excited for my senior year and to see Mrs. Cazin,” Fritch said. “She makes sure we’re always learning, and I also missed my friends. A lot of them live far away, some of them almost an hour away, so it’s nice to see them."

Senior Jeff Swanson, of Pine-Richland, is a SkillsUSA state champion who wants his third year to be about perfecting everything he has learned in the HVAC program.

The icing on the cake would be if his team could bring home a first place medal from SkillsUSA nationals, which would be an improvement over their third place performance last year.

“I never thought I’d get to do everything that’s possible here, and the atmosphere is great” Swanson said. “Everyone here is super friendly, and it’s not too much sitting around. We do a lot of hands-on work to learn.”

Shaler senior Jess Early is looking forward to being hands on with all of her work in Veterinary Sciences and making memories with her teachers, friends and student organizations like Beattie Ambassadors.

“Beattie itself is just really great from the programs to the teachers and all of the people here,” Jess said. “I don’t really know how to fully explain it. I just really love being here, and I enjoy everything we get to do in the class.”

Hampton junior Riley Isaac will enter his second year in the Sports Medicine program.

He began to volunteer at a UPMC outpatient center in the summer to compliment his education in the program and to assist physical therapists.

“I’m enjoying meeting everyone new, and I’m ready to expand on what I’ve learned about bones, muscles, injuries and how we can apply machines to help patients,” Riley said. “Mr. Vtipil is also a great teacher. It’s a very collaborative environment, so I also want to help our first-year students whenever I can.”