Students at The Woodlands High School can earn professional engineering certifications at no cost through a three-year elective sequence in the school's engineering department.
Sarah Amedee, who heads the department, built the program after leaving a career as a regional design engineer in the oil and gas industry. She designed drills for the sector before joining TWHS in 2020.
"Teaching wasn't necessarily something I had planned to do, but it ended up being a really natural fit," Amedee told The Caledonian, the school's student newspaper, in a profile published Oct. 20. "Several people in my family are educators, and in my engineering career, I had also spent a lot of time training and mentoring other engineers."
A neighbor who worked as a counselor at TWHS told Amedee the previous engineering teacher was retiring and passed along the job posting, she said. The timing coincided with uncertainty in the oil and gas sector.
Three certifications in three years
Amedee's program is structured so students can earn a professional-level certification at each stage. First-year students work toward an AutoCAD Certified User credential. Second-year students pursue the Certified SolidWorks Associate designation. Third-year students can attempt the Certified SolidWorks Professional, which SolidWorks describes as a professional-level credential for users who have mastered the fundamentals and actively use the software full time.
The credentials carry weight. Both AutoCAD and SolidWorks certifications appear on the Texas Education Agency's 2025–2030 Industry-Based Certification list, meaning they count toward state accountability measures for career and technical education (CTE) programs.
Conroe ISD covers the cost of certification preparation and exams for students enrolled in CTE courses, according to the district's CTE overview. The district offers 26 programs of study and more than 140 CTE course offerings across its campuses, with more than 25,000 students enrolled in at least one CTE course.
Internships and course details
Amedee said her industry background shapes how she teaches. She also knows companies that offer engineering internships to third-year students, according to The Caledonian profile.
The Woodlands High School is one of Conroe ISD's largest campuses, with an enrollment of about 4,444 students. The engineering electives fall under the district's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) endorsement pathway, which requires four credits in a CTE STEM program of study.
Families interested in the engineering track can find course details in the district's 2026–27 high school academic catalog.
