You’re a name
we know
And numbers
we can prove
Why?
Small classes aren’t a perk, they’re the point.
Small classes mean instructors know your name — and it shows up in outcomes: who passes their boards, who gets hired straight out of the shop.
- 20(avg)
- Average class size at Helena College.
- 100(%)
- Cosmetology board exam pass rate. Every graduate who tests, passes.
- 100(%)
- Guaranteed employment pathway for CNC Machining graduates — before they’ve even finished the program.
Areas of Interest.
Seven areas, real instructors in every one of them. Explore where a class of twenty could take you.
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Trades & Technical
Welding sparks, not whiteboards. Six programs, all hands-on.
6 programs
- Automotive Technology
- Aviation Maintenance Technology
- Diesel Technology
- CNC Machining
- Metals Technology
- Welding Technology
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Health Sciences
Nursing and Occupational Therapy Assistant — hands-on training for jobs that don’t sit still.
2 programs
- Nursing
- Occupational Therapy Assistant
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Health & Personal Services
Cosmetology, run through The Salon — real clients, real chairs, a real license at the end.
1 program
- Cosmetology
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Business
Accounting, management — the numbers side of every industry.
3 programs
- Business
- Business Technology
- Business & Accounting
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IT & Cybersecurity
Code, networks, and the systems that keep them running.
1 program
- IT & Programming
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Public Safety
Fire and Emergency Services — training for the people who show up first.
1 program
- Fire and Emergency Services
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Transfer Pathways
Start here. Finish your bachelor’s somewhere else — with every credit intact.
Faculty.
The instructor is the program.
Every one of them worked the trade before they taught it — and every one of them answers their own email.
-
Dale Whitcomb
CNC Machining
Donaldson Campus
d.whitcomb@helenacollege.edu -
Andre Boyd
Aviation Maintenance Technology
Airport Campus
a.boyd@helenacollege.edu -
Kyle Merrick
Fire & Emergency Services
Airport Campus
k.merrick@helenacollege.edu -
Ryan Doheny
Anatomy & Physiology, General Education
Donaldson Campus
r.doheny@helenacollege.edu
Student voices.
Don’t take our word for it.
1 of 8
Student
Read moreI came in never having struck an arc. My first bead looked like a bird had walked through it. Twelve weeks later I was running vertical uppers clean enough that my instructor started using them to show the next class, and by the end of the semester I had an offer from the shop where I did my hours.
Maya Sorenson
Welding Technology, Class of 2026
Student
Read moreThere were nine of us in the hangar. You can’t hide in a class that small — which is exactly why I learned fast. The instructor knew by week two what I kept getting wrong on torque specs, and he stood there until I stopped getting it wrong.
Eli Trujillo
Aviation Maintenance Technology
Student
Read moreMy instructor spent two hours after class walking me through pump math. He didn’t have to — it was a Thursday, the building was empty, and I was the only one who hadn’t got it. That’s the whole school in one story.
Dani Okafor
Fire & Emergency Services
Student
Read moreI transferred in with credits I was told I’d lose. Every single one came with me. The advisor pulled up my old transcript, mapped it against the program on one sheet of paper, and that was that — no appeals, no petition, no second semester of classes I’d already taken.
Sam Whitehorse
IT & Programming
Student
Read moreI work mornings and take classes at night. Nobody here treats that like a problem to work around — half my cohort does the same thing, the schedule is built for it, and not one instructor has ever made me feel like the job was an excuse.
Priya Raman
Business Technology & Entrepreneurship
Transfer student
Read moreTwo years here, then the University of Montana. Same degree, half the debt.
Grace Lindell
Transfer Pathways, Pre-Pharmacy
Graduate
Read moreThe nursing faculty ran review sessions on Saturdays. Nobody asked them to and nobody paid them for it — they just showed up with coffee and a stack of practice questions every weekend for a month. Every one of us passed the boards on the first try.
Colin Muir
Nursing, Class of 2025
Parent
Read moreMy daughter finished high school with a semester of college already done. It cost us almost nothing — she took two classes a term at her own school, the credits transferred with her, and she walked into her first year already knowing how a college class works.
Marcus Dean
Parent, Dual Enrollment
Dual Enrollment.
Start college while you’re still in high school.
Take a Helena College class as a junior or senior — at your school or ours. The credits are real college credits, and they come with you wherever you go next.
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01
Check if you qualify
Most juniors and seniors do. A few programs open earlier — ask and we’ll tell you straight.
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02
Talk to your counselor
They sign off on the courses and send the form to us. That’s the paperwork, all of it.
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03
Register and start
Pick your class and go. You stay a high school student the entire time — the credits are college credits.