(playful music) - Teaching cosmetology is wonderful.

I love teaching cosmetology, but having the opportunity to teach at a place with such a rich culture and such a rich history kind of adds to the enjoyment to be a part of, you know, these kids' lives.

So your tools should fit in the bottom of your middle section, just like it fits in the top.

So what inspired this program is there's, I'm in what is called the Career and Technical Education Department.

This program has been in existence for about 38 years and it has always been a staple of West Charlotte High School.

(playful music) - When my grandmother passed away about two years ago, I used to always play in her hair, like comb her hair or wash her hair, etc.

ever since I was younger.

So once she passed away, I kinda found it in myself like this is something that I wanted to do and continue to do.

- [Deborah] If they finish with their 1,200 hours, they could take their state board and they would be considered a cosmetology apprentice.

And so their apprentice license will give them the opportunity that again, they can go to CPCC and finish, or they can work under a licensed stylist that you know, for the other 300 hours and take the other part of their state board.

- The most interesting I would say is just learning different hairstyles, how they operate and what to do for each hairstyle.

'Cause it's deeper than just styling some hair.

You gotta learn like about the scalp, the deepness of it.

And the most hardest was just really trying not to be a perfectionist with everything and just understanding like, "I'm not gonna get it a hundred percent all the time, it's gonna take my practice."

(bright music) - When the students here at West Charlotte enter the health science program, the initial course that they would start out would be Health Science one, and that's the course that will provide them information about the anatomy and physiology of the human body as it relates to disease.

(bright music) Once they master that class and move on to health science two, this course introduces them to the structural components of the healthcare where they then can receive certifications such as Stop the Bleed, OSHA certification and CPR certification.

Once they complete that program, then they move to nursing fundamentals and this is the course that prepares them for the basic career to become a certified nursing assistant.

(bright music) - Some things that inspired me to pursue a career in health science is mainly my family 'cause I have a lot of family in healthcare and just seeing how they work and seeing like what they gain from it is just pretty inspiring.

So I wanna pursue a career similar to that.

(bright music)