BY JESSICA STEEELY
Clarkston News Staff Writer

Teagan Arndt and  Alexis Johnson, students at Oakland Schools Technical Campus Northwest in Springfield Township, won Breaking Traditions Awards recognizing accomplishments in nontraditional career and technical education programs.
“I was really excited to hear that I won that because it’s not an award that everyone wins, it’s not like a perfect attendance or something, it’s something you actually have to stand out to win,” said Arndt, a junior in the collision repair and refinishing program where she works on damaged cars: fixing dents, stripping down to the frame, and repainting.
She’s considering two options post-high school: going to trade school to be an aviation mechanic or joining the Air Force.
Johnson, a senior in the engineering and emerging technologies program, plans to study robotics after high school.
“We learn how to program robots, we learn how to work with them and on the computers,” she said. “We write programs and we use like the software on there to write them.”
Johnson was also excited about the Breaking Traditions Award. She’d wanted to try for it since first hearing about the opportunity last year and was elated when her instructor nominated her.
“I think [the award’s] really important because it’s setting an example for other kids who want to go through with being in careers that aren’t traditional for their gender,” Johnson said. “I feel like there’s a lot of  ‘oh, engineering’s for boys’ or ‘health sciences is for girls,’ stuff like that and I feel like it’s really important to tell these kids, recognize them for stepping out, breaking the barriers.”
The award honors students pursuing careers in fields non-typical to their gender.