Viking New Tech at Huntington North High School hosted its inaugural portfolio night on Tuesday, May 24, giving students, teachers and parents a chance to evaluate the program’s first year.

VNT ninth-graders (the only grade currently in the program) prepared online portfolios to present to friends, family and staff. The portfolios consisted of media presentations, photo compilations, resumes, career plans and a sampling of schoolwork.

Parents, teachers and siblings milled around the VNT classrooms as the students hosted groups of spectators around their laptops, explaining the basics of VNT and the work they had produced. VNT Director Kelly Reiner was pleased with the high turnout for the event.

“This is great,” she said, looking at the three bustling classrooms.

Reiner says that support and interest in the program has increased. This year 108 students will finish as VNT ninth graders to return next year. The 125 slots for next year’s ninth grade class are already filled, Reiner says, and there is a waiting list.

Parent Darren Crandell says he didn’t know what to expect at the beginning of the year when the Huntington County Community School Corporation introduced VNT to HNHS.

“We were apprehensive to start with,” Crandell says. “I heard ‘New Tech’ and I thought ‘vocational school.'”

However, after an introduction to the program at freshman orientation, soon-to-be ninth grader Maddi Crandell told her parents that the new program excited her and she wanted to try it out.

“It has been so much more,” Crandell says, reflecting on his original perception.