This year, the Professional Career Academy (PCA) has undergone several changes as this 21st Century program wraps up.

The BIOengineering and Business Finance 21st Century programs are two new programs introduced to the school this year.

While the PCA 21st Century program consists of four strands, with two of them being Science and Business, the two new BIOengineering and Business Finance programs are completely separate from the PCA program and not a rebranding of the PCA program, despite the similarities their names possess, according to Ruth Falls, PCA facilitator.

PCA will officially be disbanded during the 2020-21 school year when this year’s Freshman Class graduates. The three 21st Century academies at school will be the Computer Science academy, BIOengineering, and Business Finance.

One new change to the PCA program, as well as all other 21st Century programs, is a requirement for members to meet a certain number of extension hours, or “e-hours”.

These hours can be met via participation in strand-related extracurricular clubs and by also attending the lecture series held throughout the year, according to Falls.

Even though seminar is being shortened to 45 minutes this year, the lecture series will still be held during seminar.

PCA members will also meet once a month during Falcon 50, where they will have a free lunch and meet with their strand heads about certain program-related projects that members are required to complete.