We visited Cari Tretina, Chief of Staff for Henrico’s County Manager, and had a great talk with her about her experiences in the EMT program at the ACE Center at Hermitage when she was in high school. We also discussed her college and career path that brought her to become Henrico County’s very first Chief of Staff. It was a great discussion about how CTE programs are just as important to college-bound students as they are for ready-to-work students. Please have a listen and let us know your thoughts. Email us at mwroberts@henrico.k12.va.us with your thoughts and ideas and maybe we will be able to read them on the next show. Click here to listen or find us on your favorite podcast app.

Carlos Savory, welding instructor at the ACE Center at Virginia Randolph, took his Summer Polytech students to the historic Jackson Blacksmith Shop. Jackson Blacksmith Shop was built in 1932 and is a historic blacksmith shop located near Goochland, Goochland County, Virginia and is still in operation today. Our students were able to see and experience the unique skills of blacksmithing.

http://jacksonblacksmithshop.org/

Summer Polytech students in the Sports Medicine class are getting lifeguard training thanks to SwimRVA!

Most of the ACE Center programs available for juniors and seniors are occupied this summer by middle and high school students. They get to experience a different kind of learning and explore the hundreds of extremely important career paths available for today’s students. This is a great opportunity to try out a program before you get to sign up your sophomore year.

The Summer Building Trades students are getting to work at our Regency Project today. Our students who have already earned their OSHA Safety Cards are hard at work while our new students have three days of safety training before they can start. We are building out a wing of Regency Square Mall and turning them into Adult Education classrooms and more. This is a great opportunity for students to get real hands-on experience in many different trades.

In our latest episode David Mullsteff, owner and CEO of Cables Plus and Tactical Deployment talks to us about how he first started in the cabling industry and how he started his own custom copper and fiber cabling companies. His company, like many small businesses, look to hire young people and train them from day one and mentor them so that they can grow with the company. He talks about how CTE programs help students with the soft skills important to small businesses looking to hire. https://anchor.fm/henrico-cte/episodes/Henrico-CTE-Now–Season-4–Episode-12-David-Mullsteff–CEOOwner-of-Tactical-Deployment-Systems-and-Cables-Plus-e1jugv3 #HenricoCTE #HenricoSchools #SoftSkills #LifeReady #CareerReady #Henrico #HenricoVA #HenricoCounty

https://store.cablesplususa.com/

https://www.tacreadydeploy.com/

Henrico Citizen every year highlights the top 20 teachers in Henrico County. Thank you for recognizing some of our great teachers. Click here to link to the article and the complete list of teachers. Here is a list of CTE teachers they recognized:

• Maegan Bendit, Hungary Creek, family and consumer science
• Willard Cline, Highland Springs ACE Center, electricity
• Tiniko Johnson, Varina HS, business

Congratulations to our great CTE teachers!

Today is the day when our ACE Center students have their Completion Ceremony! ACE students have spent one to two years of training to prepare themselves for their career by moving on to a 2 or 4-year college or university or straight to work.  Here is to their hard work paying off and bright futures ahead!

Springer Preschool Academy had their “Moving Up Ceremony” today! The ACE Center at Highland Springs Early Childhood Education students and our 2/3s and 4/5 children put on a great show for the parents and then had their award ceremony. Click here for more photos.