Surface Warfare Officer School Unit (SWOSU) Great Lakes and Center for Surface Combat Systems Unit (CSCSU) Great Lakes hosted students from Chicago Tech High School as part of their partnership-in-education community outreach efforts, Oct. 5.

More than 15 students traveled to SWOSU and CSCSU to tour the facility and ask staff questions about the Navy. They also enjoyed lunch at the Navy Exchange Food Court.

At SWOSU, staff led a tour of the training facilities of Basic Engineering Common Core (BECC).

BECC balances computer-based training (CBT) with hands-on training labs and instructor-led classroom training with realistic simulations, creating an integrated learning environment (ILE).

They also visited the LPD 17 Maintainer Course where students gain knowledge and skills to maintain engineering control systems in the fleet.

"We are proud to give the students the opportunity to meet our staff and tour our facility," said Cmdr. Terrance Patterson, commanding officer of SWOSU Great Lakes. "It can be hard to decide what to do after high school. I'm happy to be able to show the students another avenue they can take if they are not ready for college."

At CSCSU, they toured the Electronics Technician/Fire Controlman "A" School T1 RADAR partial task trainer.

"Getting the opportunity to have students form Chicago Tech High School visit CSCSU and the chance to showcase what our Sailors do day in and day out is tremendous," said Lt. Drew Serrecchia, executive officer of CSCSU. "It can be difficult to decide what to do next. Providing students many options paves the way for success. I hope the students saw the pride of our instructors when they were describing what they do. Maybe we sparked an interest in at least one of the students to consider an honorable career in the Navy."

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For more news from Training Support Center, Great Lakes, visit www.navy.mil/.