[ Whimsical music ] - When it came time to pick a high school, Rachel knew exactly where she wanted to go.

John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento.

That's because it offers a unique career pathway for manufacturing and design.

Also known as MAD.

- At JFK you can go into the MAD program and that really allows you to dive deeper into your interest for manufacturing and design and just engineering in general.

That also allows you to like go into more tailored classes for you.

- The program immerses students in the world of manufacturing, engineering and design over a three year span.

And they create some amazing things.

- In this class, students do a lot of project-based learning, so they're given some information to start, some guidelines.

I give them necessary information, they make progress on whatever project they're working on and they stop and ask very specific questions that they want answers to.

And they remember because double click, they wanted to learn that.

Imagine it's like opening the doors on the machine.

- Starting freshman year, students learn computer aided design and 3D printing as sophomores.

They're introduced to manufacturing engineering and they learn to use laser cutters, 3D cutters and other heavy machinery.

Upper class students operate various machines in JFK state-of-the-art MAD facility to create advanced manufacturing projects.

- The manufacturing design program is kind of the crown jewel of our district.

I mean they get students from truly the whole county that want to come here to participate in this program because it's very, very unique from the sense of the abundance of machines.

We actually have, - A lot of schools don't have this.

So I think it's really important that there is a place for students to come and dive deeper into their love for engineering and design stuff.

- Rachel was inspired to join the school after seeing both of her older brothers graduate from the MAD program three years into that same program.

She knows she made the right choice.

- It really does allow for you to like express your true wanting to do stuff.

And especially being a girl, you know, it is a little bit intimidating sometimes 'cause you might think of engineering as a male dominated field, but when you come in, especially at JFK, it's super warm and welcoming and it allows you to make a space for other people as well.

- The program is aimed at providing students with opportunities and choices after they graduate high school, the choice to go straight to work, the choice to go to college and further their learning in something that they love.

- And for students still in high school, there's another choice.

They can join the JFK robotics team, an afterschool club where students collaborate to design, manufacture and program their own robot from scratch.

A robot that will then compete against others in a competition called the First Tech Challenge.

- First robotics is work-based learning for a lot of these students.

They get to use their design, their manufacturing skills and push them to another level where they're now working within a team building soft skills and really elevating themselves to a new level in terms of pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone.

- I mean, it put me into a whole new world of engineering and I'm honestly super, super amazed how much I've been able to learn just by being in robotics, like working with a team.

And so with MAD and Robotics, like I know I'm just not doing a bunch of random work and like this work will definitely be applied in the future.

- If you love building things, if you love designing things, if you love, you know, for some reason finite element analysis like this allows you to realize that and say, okay, I can like zoom in on exactly what I want to be doing and enjoy every step that I take after high school.

- And some students like Akith have already begun zooming in on a career path.

- I think robotics sparked my interest for making rovers for NASA.

That's like the biggest thing that I think I want to do in the future.

I'm already coding a robot to move by itself and to do certain tasks, which I think will definitely carry on to, you know, a future career.

So it has definitely stuck with me for a long time.

- Building upon their success, John F. Kennedy High School plans to expand their program to make it available to even more students in the region.

- You know, it's, it's a great time when you have the students and your staff excited about trying new things and this key thing is the opportunities for the kids.

When kids have stuff that they're, that motivate them and they're engaged with, you know, sky's the limit.