Signing Day 2.0 Was A Hit!

Over 110 students! Over 60 businesses! A day of recognition and celebration of graduating seniors beginning their careers by signing letters of intent with local businesses for everything from IT to masonry. Signing Day 2.0 was a huge hit and a great success. These students have decided to delay college or skip it all together and use their skills developed in one of our CTE programs to begin their careers in a field chosen by them. Each student hired will be earning competitive pay as high as $40k a year and also earning varying benefits such as vacation pay, medical coverage, and retirement benefits.

Last year Henrico CTE held our first Signing Day event with just over 20 students and a dozen businesses. A social media post made it to the eyes of celebrity, Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch and more. Mike, a huge supporter of students going into the traditional trades and other jobs that make civilization possible, was thrilled to see that Henrico CTE was celebrating students choosing a less traditional option after graduating high school. His response on his own Facebook page was that he hoped that others should “follow Henrico’s lead.” That response caused our original post to go “viral” and resulted in Mike getting his wish. They have followed our lead.

In the months since last year’s event our director for Henrico CTE, Mac Beaton, has been contacted by school systems from every state except Hawaii looking for information on how they can replicate our Henrico CTE Signing Day. Mac has been interviewed by most major news outlets including some of our local outlets and NBC’s Today show, Fox News and just last month CNN Headline news. He has also participated in many radio interviews and print/online articles from across the country about our event.

This year’s event was amazing. Our students, our supportive parents and our many business partners made this an event to remember. We all here are looking forward to see what is in store for Henrico CTE Signing Day 3.0!