For most students, high school is a place where they take classes that might help them decide on a college major, which then might lead to a future career.

For students at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Career Academies, school is a place where they can directly try on various careers. "Why waste four years of college just to decide that it's not what you want to do? This is giving us a chance to get out and get the real-life experience to know if we really want to do it or not," said Felisha Dugan, 15.

Felisha is a sophomore at Indianapolis Met, a charter school near Downtown Indianapolis. She was among a group of students who recently talked about their experiences at the new charter school.

Felisha had attended Creston Middle School in Warren Township and said she chose Indianapolis Met because she "was tired of just the everyday school life" and "thought it was good because not everybody knows what they want to do."

Joseph Davis, 18, transferred to Indianapolis Met from Broad Ripple High School in search of a challenge. "At the old school, it was nice and all, but they didn't teach us nothing and everybody was flunking out. I wasn't flunking out. That's why I came because I thought I'd have a better opportunity here."

Indianapolis Met is made up of two tuition-free public charter high schools that opened in August 2004 by Goodwill Education Initiatives Inc. It is based on a model developed by the Big Picture Co. of Providence, R.I., which emphasizes individualized instruction based on a student's interests and skills. A key component is linking students with adult mentors in internships outside of school, where they can pursue their career interests and refine their abilities.

Goodwill founded Indianapolis Met after it noticed that most of the adults in need of its services had done poorly in school. Met is its attempt to increase high-school graduation and college-participation rates.

Indianapolis Met's two high schools have similar populations and curriculum. School 1 has 88 students, almost double the 2004-05 enrollment of 49. Similarly, School 2 has a 2005-06 enrollment of 86 students, compared to 51 in 2004-05.

Plan for learning

Besides being much smaller, the schools differ from most public high schools in other ways. The focus is more on individuals, not classes as a whole. For instance, each student is assigned an adviser, who helps him or her develop a learning plan. In addition, each student is assigned to a single classroom, or advisory. Instead of receiving letter grades, students make entries in a learning journal at least three times a week and make a presentation of their work at an exhibition each quarter. They also keep a working portfolio, which they present at the end of the year.

A typical week is split into school days and internship days. School days start at 9 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with a 30-minute "Pick-Me-Up," which might include announcements, motivational speakers or student presentations. Then students report to their advisories, where most of the subject matter is taught. "We do like math workshops, advisory, independent work time, SSR (sustained silent reading," said Sabrina Ratcliff , 18, who came from Arsenal Tech.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students go to internships or search for one. Students can have as many internships as they want, but each must last at least three months. Tiffany Needler, 18, who left Flanner House Higher Learning for the Met, explains the process: "You find out what you want to do, then you look for contacts on the Internet or in the phone book. You fill out a whole lot of paperwork, and you call the people and you ask, 'Can I have information or an interview?' and you go and you interview them and see if you like the place. Then you go for a shadow day, fill out some more paperwork. Then you meet with your adviser, and more paperwork, and then your potential mentor and you go have a meeting and set it up for your internship."

Students like the intimate setting of Indianapolis Met and the fact that teacher/advisers stay with them for multiple years.

"They advise us on ways to go and things to do. They meet your family and they go to your house and hang out all the time," said Tiffany. "My last teachers, they just shuffled, you know, got through their class. You got through your lesson and whether you talked or not, they didn't care. You were just nobody, but here you're somebody."

"I'm in a room with like 12 other students, and we get a lot of one-on-one," Sabrina said.

The internship program is popular with most students, although it requires them to take the initiative in finding internships that help them pursue their interests. For example, Sabrina is interested in politics and has interned with City-County Councilman Ron Gibson. Joseph is interested in engineering and has worked on various projects at the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, including one that investigated the feasibility of installing bike lanes on some city streets.

Felisha wants to be a marine biologist and credits Indianapolis Met with helping her make the first step. "I had to write a grant and do all this paperwork to become a certified scuba diver. I never thought it would've happened, but it did because of the school," she said.

Since then, she has worked in the Waters Building at the Indianapolis Zoo, feeding the penguins.

Caleb Adams, 16, is another student whose internships are helping him build his resume. A former IPS student in his second year at Met, he's interested in computer technology and is now interning with etapestry.com, a Web site that helps nonprofit groups. Before that, he helped build a Web server from scratch. "That's something that a lot of colleges and a lot of jobs out there are looking for."

Big change

"This school has changed my life," said Tiffany, who's interested in real estate and has interned with Flock Realty. "I've basically buckled down and done a lot of work that I wouldn't have done at my other school."

"You get to leave your classroom and go see other schools and other people and go out in the community," added sophomore Anzia Crenshaw, 16, a second-year Met student who is interested in choreography and has an internship with Radio One at WTLC-FM. "We are getting not just more education but more hands-on experience than IPS (students)."

These teens want to work and build futures for themselves. They say most Indianapolis Met students are focused on going to college instead of hanging out and looking for trouble.

"We're more about getting our work done and what college we're going to and what we're gonna do and trying to outdo ourselves on our schoolwork," explained Tiffany.

Still, some students see some shortcomings at Indianapolis Met. As much as they enjoy the freedoms of the school and its unique learning environment, some desire a greater focus on academics.

"The school has taught a lot of personal qualities, but we need more academics," Felisha said.

"There's just too much free time," agreed Shaquayla Robertson, 16, who came from Pike Township and is interning with an eye doctor. "Some people work, some people don't. I'm used to rules."

Indianapolis Met's ISTEP scores show room for improvement. Of all the students at School 1 who took the test in '05-'06, just under 20 percent passed both the English and math sections. At School 2, that number was just over 25 percent.

These students defend their school's performance. "It's hard to compare schools that use completely different standards. Standardized tests scores are based on a traditional school," Caleb said.

The teens believe their school has provided them with multiple opportunities and would recommend it to others. "I think that in the future I would just want as many kids as possible to come to charter schools because it seems like one of the best opportunities for youngsters," Anzia said.

REPORTERS: Alyse Phillips, 10; Celia Ristow, 14; Steven Thompson, 14; Erin Tuckman, 14.

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