Stephen Allard (‘06), a Bellows Free Academy alumni, is now the new Building Trades program teacher for the Northwest Career and Technical Center.

According to Ballard, NCTC’s Building Trades program typically focuses on construction and students embedding themselves in many large projects around our region.  Students also learn different types of trades such as HVAC, plumbing and electrical work.

Allard said he grew up in St. Albans with his parents and four older siblings and now lives in Cambridge with his fiance and two sons. After graduating from BFA, Allard said he immediately went into the construction industry and, having previously participated in the tech center’s Building Trades program, Allard felt comfortable and confident in his new job. 

For the last several years Allard said he has been self-employed and working on doing building inspections for federal renovation loans all over Vt. Once COVID hit, Allard spent a lot of his time at home with his two sons. 

In high school, Allard said he had a hard time figuring out what he wanted to do with his life after high school. With the help of the Building Trades program, Allard was pointed in the direction of his career path and could not be happier with that decision.  The teachers helped Allard decide what he was interested in.

“I have the utmost respect for the program and the past teachers of it,” Allard said.

According to Allard, he applied to NCTC because he wanted to make a difference in his students’ lives the same way his life was changed by being a part of this program. 

“When I heard about the job opportunity, I had to jump on it. It was almost like a dream job to me,” Allard said. 

According to Allard, there are a lot of differences between this job at NCTC and Allard’s last job. Allard has never worked as a teacher before, and his time at BFA has helped him be open to new experiences. Allard’s new responsibilities include taking charge of students’ progress towards learning the different skills necessary for graduating from the Building Trades Program. 

 Now, Allard said, he “want[s] to help point students in a direction that [his] teachers did for [him].”