In many areas of the country, career and technical education programs are connecting learning with the resources, culture, history and people of the places where they are based. They are also forging a special connection between education and the needs of the community. Two such programs are discussed in this article. In the first example, students from the Prosser School of Technology at New Albany--named after the man known as the father of vocational education in the U.S., Charles Allen Prosser--recreated a piece of their area's past by helping to build a replica of the Monon train station in Salem, Indiana. Known as The Depot, the building is part of the John Hay Center, which is owned by the Washington County Historical Society. The second example describes another school with a strong sense of history and its place in the community: Ranken Technical College in St. Louis, Missouri. The Ranken Community Development Corporation was formed as a partnership between Ranken Technical College and the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations. Since 1994, 29 new homes have been completed in the neighborhood, and number 30 is currently in progress. These houses have been built by the carpentry students at Ranken, who are gaining vital hands-on training to go with their classroom studies.