Innovative Partners With St. Joseph High School IT Academy In Wide-Ranging Agreement

ST. CROIX — Innovative, one of the territory’s biggest employers leading the way in information technology (IT) services, has partnered with St. Joseph High School to provide science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and cyber security careers for the territory’s youth, utilizing Cisco’s networking academy curriculum as the foundation upon which the program is based.

The partnership was announced at a press conference held at the school, located at 3 Mt. Pleasant, Frederiksted on Monday, where representatives from the school and Innovative gathered to share details and sign the memorandum of agreement, while expressing an eagerness to move  the territory’s youth in the direction of information technology as the world continues to thrust forward with global connectivity via the internet.

Father John Mark, principal at St. Joseph for four years, expressed excitement for the new partnership and the added educational value the program brings to the school’s curriculum.

“We’re very excited about this new IT program that we’re going to be really getting into the next school year,” Father Mark said. “We want to say a heartfelt thank you to innovative for partnering with us to get this meeting off the ground and running.”

The priest said the new initiative is very much in line with the principles of Catholic education, which he says has been ongoing for many centuries. Father Mark added that one of the bedrocks of the school is to prepare “our young people to be able to contribute meaningfully to the world that they’re going to be entering into, but doing it in a way where they are morally and spiritually formed. So we’re very grateful to Innovative for coming on board to be part of it.”

Innovative and St. Joseph High School executives sign memorandum of agreement.

Jennifer Matarangas-King, Innovative V.P. of government operations who represented the company at the event, made known that Richard Dorsey, director of institutional advancement at St. Joseph, approached Innovative a few months ago with the project. She said the company wasted no time in partnering with the school because of  the program’s STEM curriculum.

Matarangas King stated that any program that aids in the training of the next generation of Innovative employees is of much interest to the firm, “and this is a perfect opportunity for us to get in there very early as they’re developing.”

The V.P. of government operations shared some details of the wide-ranging agreement, which includes financial support, access to many of the firm’s top executives, access to its facilities, mentorship, internship, heavy promotion through TV2, a property of Innovative, and more.

Aside from the partnership being a great way to ready the next generation of IT professionals in the territory and also prepare the next wave of possible Innovative employees, the firm, which has been providing IT-based services to the territory for decades, sees its contribution to St. Joseph as a way to give back to the community.

“At the end of the day, for us, it’s all about the students who will be very productive and we hope that they come back to us, but we know that we’ve made a contribution to something very important, so we’re very excited,” Matarangas-King said.

The school’s fledgling IT program encompasses 9th-12th grade. It will launch in August with the freshman and sophomore classes, and boasts a myriad of career paths, including network administrator, network technician, network installer, help desk technician, I.T. cable installer, cyber security engineer, cyber security consultant, I.A. technician and I.A. manager.

Upon completion of the program, the students will leave with seven industry IT and technical certifications, according to information provided by St. Joseph High School.

For more information about Catholic schools in the territory, go here. To learn more about the CISCO courses click here, and to learn more about Innovative go here.

Feature Image: From left, Father John Mark and Jennifer Matarangas-King, Innovative’s V.P. of government operations, shake hands at the partnership announcement press conference.