Armory Center for the Arts offers a variety of arts education programs in the schools, the community and at its studios and gallery. The Armory's High School After-School Program is run in partnership with the Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program and Pasadena's Visual Arts and Design Academy, a public school "academy" (a school within a school). Twice a week for 3 hours and on Fridays and Saturdays for open studio time, students selected for the Program come to Armory to study letterpress or photography. Professional artists and teaching assistants from Armory and Cal Arts instruct the classes. Youth learn the technical aspects of each discipline on design projects that reflect their personal concerns and on contracted projects such as bus posters and other public art projects. Pieces completed for the community are then displayed in public venues. At the end of each school year, youth can continue working through the Summer Youth Employment Program. They can become assistants in Armory's in-school photography workshops, apply for (and many have been accepted into) the Summer School for the Arts at Cal Arts or enroll in programs run by other CAP partners. "This is our last opportunity to reach at-risk youth," Director Elisa Crystal explains. "Once they leave high school, they are really out on their own. Through the Program, kids are staying in school and becoming increasingly ambitious."