Thomas A. Edison High School (Queens)

Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School (often referred to locally simply as Edison) is a public secondary school in Queens's Jamaica community in New York City. It is one of the few public high schools in New York City to offer vocational training programs as well as traditional college preparatory tracks and well known for its largely male population. The school is operated by the New York City Department of Education.LocationThe campus is located near the top of a fairly steep hill at the corner of 168th St. and 84th Ave., and sits on the south side the Grand Central Parkway; it is situated diagonally across the parkway, southwest from St. John's University. Hillside Avenue, at the foot of the hill, is several blocks to the south.Jamaica High School is separated from Edison by 84th Avenue and the Jamaica High School Track and Football Field, these school do not share any affiliation with each other. Hillcrest High School, another nearby high school, is located at Highland Avenue and Parsons Blvd.Academic programsStudents at Edison generally take required courses in health, music theory, and art appreciation during their freshman year, at the end of which they choose a track to pursue in grades 10-12. Edison offers college-preparatory technological programs such as mechanical, electronic and pre-medical pharmaceutical technologies as well as more trade-oriented programs such as automotive and computer repair (A+ Certification), mechanical engineering / AUTOCAD, C++ programming, computer graphics design, and the Cisco Networking Academy, in which one can earn a CCNA network certification upon completion of the program. In information technology, students take Electronics and Cabling for one term. After they pass both classes, they have a choice of major for junior and senior year.