Career and Technical Education is celebrated in Palm Beach County each year in the month of February, and this year is no different.  Once again, Palm Beach Lakes Community High School is participating by celebrating its own CTE Week in February.

The district’s theme this year is “Recognizing Classroom Innovators,” and that is just what PBL is doing from February 2-6, CTE Week 2015. The purpose is to showcase and acknowledge the programs, as well as the teachers, that prepare students for the work place and/or college:  DCT (Mr. Lorenzo Hands), Introduction to Information Technology (Mrs. Demetria Williams), Digital Design (Mrs. Tamara Smith and Mr. Neil Thorpe), Biotechnology (Mrs. Mira Dhond and Dr. Laura Pedro Rosa), Early Childhood and Culinary Arts (Mrs. Andrea Johnson), Legal Aspects of Business (Mr. Phillip Stillman, Esq.), Medical (Ms. Emma Franco, RN, Ms. Barbara Gissenter, RN, and Ms. Claudine McFarlane, CMAA), and Teacher Education (Dr. Trudi Adams-Wiggan and Mr. Ben DeFillippo).  These courses, especially those that do not also fall under the Choice program category, have not traditionally been emphasized; however, they greatly impact our student’s future careers and lives in many ways.  Students enrolled in CTE classes have opportunities to hear guest speakers in fields of their interest, job shadow different career professionals, participate in semester and year-long clinicals and/or internships, create presentations for career fairs, plan career expos to recruit other interested students, research and visit colleges and universities that specialize in specific academic and career areas, collaborate and network with multiple business professionals and experts, accumulate hours of community service which can be used for graduation and scholarship purposes, and take and pass Industry Certification exams which make it possible for students to begin their technical careers.  For all of this and much, much more, the Ram family recognizes its Classroom Innovators:

During CTE Week 2015, the highlights and descriptions of each program, as well as interesting CTE program facts and trivia, will be announced and posted around campus.   The special event of the week, though, is the half-day CTE Fair, which is scheduled for Friday, February 6 in the school’s gymnasium.  An information, display, and/or demonstration table will be set up for each of the career programs.  Also featured in each CTE section, will be at least one college/university AND one business/company that offer or employ the skills associated with that CTE program.  Some of the presentation guests include ITT Technical Institute, Southeastern College, Keiser University, Palm Beach State College, Max Planck, PBC School Board—Department of Recruitment and Retention, and of course, the CTE Fair Sponsor, Lincoln Technical College.  PBL teachers can sign up to take their classes to the fair.  Middle school students (arranged by the school’s administration or representative) and other guests are also welcome to attend.  For more information, contact Tera Hands at [email protected] or 561-640-5014.