BERLIN — As any racing enthusiast will tell you, pacing is as important as speed. There’s no point in being the fastest car in the race if you run out of gas before the finish. But this year’s youngest Wor-Wic Community College graduate, Tory Vaughan IV still has plenty in the tank as he prepares for the next few year’s worth of schooling and racing.

Vaughan’s educational path is as unusual as his prospective career path. Home schooled since he was 17, he budgeted his time between racing — first go carts, then S-10 super trucks — and studying. For him, the key was to prize quality over speed as a way of making sure he got as much from his education as he did out of his pickup.

His prudent planning allowed him plenty of time to use his book knowledge as well as his mechanical knowledge to push himself a little harder each year.

When it came time for Vaughan to transition into college, he welcomed the challenge of the coursework and the even greater responsibilities that came with it. The deadlines were now further apart than they had been during his previous education, which gave him more opportunity to slack off, if he chose to.

He, of course, chose not to. Although he’d taken a course or two at Wor-Wic before finishing high school, Vaughan understood that in order to really succeed and to pursue his next academic goal at Daytona State College, Fla., where he’ll study welding and high performance engine mechanics, he’d have to continue to push himself.

Although he had found his limits on the track — a wrecked Chevy pickup in his yard provides his new truck parts as much as it reinforces a cautionary tale about limits — in school, he never seemed to find his breaking point.

Last week he accepted his diploma in business management the day before he turned 20, making him the youngest graduate in the Wor-Wic Class of 2011. He spent his birthday working on his truck in anticipation of an upcoming race at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va.

“I just buckled down and did all the work,” he said. While the work was all his own, though, Vaughn said that his support group, including his parents, Tory and Julie, his younger sister, Annie, and his friends, Brad Adams and Eric Bucklew, was integral in making the work both bearable and worth it.

He said he chose the business management path at Wor-Wic because it provided him with a baseline knowledge that could be applied both to his immediate goals and to his longer term ones.

Vaughn already has a quasi-successful racing business. He has sponsors to please and manage as well as deals to make with prospective sponsors. He’ll also have to have a significant grounding in managing his financial and corporate affairs.

From his perspective, even if he has trouble making it in racing, between the business acumen he’s gotten from his Wor-Wic education and the further mechanical knowledge he’s certain to get at Daytona, he’s likely to have all the work he can handle in the short term, which is fine with him.

“It was just something I thought would be good for me even if I can’t get into racing,” he said.

But as Vaughn continues to master his skills behind the wheel, under the hood and in the classroom, it looks as if he’ll continue to push his limits until he’s satisfied.

NEWARK — The nursing program at Worcester Technical High School has been producing graduates with practical skills and knowledge long before moving into the state-of-the art facility it now occupies.

The genius of the nursing program is it allows students not only to intern at healthcare facilities all over the county as part of their training but it also is able to confer Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) status upon them as they head into their final year of school.

Ocean Pines resident Kelsey Cooper is among the students who will be eligible to work as CNAs before the end of her junior year. She’s currently interning at Berlin Nursing and Rehabilitation but after securing her certification will be able to work most anywhere in the area, earning money for college while she’s improving her skills, background and experience.

She was attracted to the program after her sister recommended it as a way to get even more from her Worcester County education as well as the opportunity to test drive a career before having to make a decision about it.

After her experience as a CAN, Cooper said she’s interested in continuing to college — she’ll apply to Salisbury University and Howard University next year — to pursue a degree in nursing and to become a chemotherapy nurse.

“I like the idea of helping people who have cancer,” she said.

Similarly, Pocomoke resident Jessica Benoit followed her sister into the program and already has a pretty good idea about what lines of education she’d like to follow and which aspects of nursing interest her most. Benoit hopes to earn her R.N. and eventually work in a hospital emergency room.

“I like the ER,” she said. “It’s always an adventure going to work.”

Jolisa Jackson, another of their fellow students, hopes the nursing program at Worcester Tech will be the springboard into medical school for her.

“I’d like to go past the CNA and become a surgeon,” she said.

Jackson hopes to go to Temple, Johns Hopkins, or Morgan next year and the money she earns working for doctor’s offices now plus the experience should help in that regard.

Putting kids in the position in which they’re most likely to succeed is a job the school takes seriously. Dr. Penny Makuchal, who teaches allied health occupations at the school, said the staff has come up with a new program to better prepare the students for careers in the medical arts.

Beginning next spring, Worcester students who might be interested in pursuing healthcare careers will have the opportunity to participate in the “Academy of Health Professions,” a sample track that will expose them to the three medical professions enterable directly from high school.

In addition to the CNA program, the school offers pharmacy technician and dental assistant programs. The academy will allow students to take several baseline medical classes that apply to all three tracks before selecting a particular course of study.

Makuchal said they were hoping to have at least 30 students show interest but have already had 60 say they would like to participate in the program.

“We expected a lot of kids but the response was even better,” she said. “The program gives them the opportunity to choose between tracks before having to commit to any of the three programs.”

More importantly, it helps students become functionl members of the healthcare community long before they’re livelihood depends upon it. The result already tends to be more interested, enthusiastic employees.

Anyone who is interested in finding out more about the Academy of Health Professions should call 410-641-5050 and ask for Dr. Penny Makuchal.