CTE Connections November 2019
News and Updates from the Division of Career and Technical Education
Preparing Students for Future College and Career Success
Arkansas FFA Students Recognized at National Convention Source: Sunni Wise, Program Advisor, Office of Agriculture Technology
The National FFA Convention was held in Indianapolis, Indiana Oct 31- Nov 2, 2019, with nearly 70,000 students, advisors and guests in attendance. Arkansas was very well represented! We are very proud of all who participated, and congratulate those who earned national recognition.
National Champion Ag Processing Proficiency Award
Jack Hoyle of Taylor FFA 2nd Place Overall in Divi.3 of Power, Structural, & Technical Systems AgScience Fair
National 2nd Place Poultry Judging CDE Team – Springdale Har-Ber FFA
National Winning Forestry CDE Team – Hermitage FFA
National Champion Ag Processing Proficiency Award Recipient – Brayden Ingram of Har-Ber
National Winning Forestry CDE Team – Hermitage FFA
National High Point Individual Forestry CDE Team – Alan McGhee, Hermitage FFA
National 2nd Place Poultry Judging CDE Team – Springdale Har-Ber FFA
National 3rd High Point Individual Poultry CDE Team – Amanda Anthney, Springdale Har-Ber FFA
National 3rd Place Ag Communications CDE Team – Lincoln FFA
National 4th High Point Individual Forestry CDE Team – Gregory Hillard, Hermitage FFA
National 4th Overall Prepared Public Speaking LDE – Kacey Williams of Greenbrier FFA
National 5th High Point Individual Ag Communications CDE Team – Hailey Cox, Lincoln FFA
National 6th High Point Individual Forestry CDE Team – Madison McGhee
National 6th High Point Individual Poultry CDE Team – Cada Fischer, Springdale Har-Ber FFA
National 7th High Point Individual Ag Communications CDE Team – Leah Greene, Lincoln FFA
National 8th High Point Individual Ag Communications CDE Team – Nathan Hutchens, Lincoln FFA
National 8th Place Livestock Judging CDE Team – Rosebud FFA
National 10th High Point Individual Forestry CDE Team – Aaron Harrod
2nd Place Overall in Division 3 of Power, Structural, and Technical Systems AgScience Fair – Jack Hoyle of Taylor FFA
National Chorus Concert Soloist – Jayla Dagen of Cabot FFA
National Proficiency Finalists – Amanda Anthney of Springdale Har-Ber, Max Greb of Magazine, and Sydney Douglas of Bentonville West
American FFA Degree Recipients Zachary Andrews, Camden-Fairview Neely Caroline Purifoy, Camden-Fairview Lauren Brockman, Conway Jacie Wilkerson, Cossatot River Braden Bateman, County Line Michael Lloyd, County Line Hayden Cole King, Danville Jessika Calhoon, Farmington Dixie Miller, Farmington Megan Morris, Fayetteville East Jessa Goodeaux, Fountain Lake Rebecca Davis, Gravette Kaylie Raylynn Stone, Gurdon Gibson Wilson, Harrison Violet Grace Mefford, Jasper Cole Alan Umberson, Lincoln Reece McDonald, Magnolia Caitlyn Ferguson, Mountain Home Dalton Morrison, Mountain Home Wyatt Petty, Mountain Home Taylor Richey, Mountain Home Dawsyn Smith, Newport Alex Gibson, Piggott Allison Kilbreath, Piggott Blaine Huddleston, Pocahontas Clara Luttrell, Pocahontas McKayla Sorg, Pocahontas Savannah Lee Davis, Quitman Kannon Tate, Rose Bud Jeffrey Colten Pelfrey, St. Paul Josiah C. Yohn, St. Paul Charley Adcock, Stuttgart
National 3rd Place Ag Communications CDE Team – Lincoln
The Gold Standard We also celebrate the accomplishments of 32 American Degree Recipients. As the highest degree achievable in the National FFA Organization, the American FFA Degree shows an FFA member’s dedication to his or her chapter and state FFA association. It demonstrates the effort FFA members apply toward their supervised agricultural experience and the outstanding leadership abilities and community involvement they exhibited through their FFA career.
A huge congratulations to our Agriculture & Technology Program Manager, Chris Bacchus! He received the Honorary American FFA Degree at the National FFA convention for his many years of dedication to the organization. We are so proud of him and his humorous and genuine approach to hard work with his team, schools, and students!
Chris Bacchus, Agriculture & Technology Program Manager— Honorary American FFA Degree recipient
HERE WE GO! DECA is preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs to be college and career ready. If you want to see positivity, motivation and inspiration in action, just follow some Arkansas DECA (#ARDECA, #weARdeca) members on social media. These emerging leaders and their advisors share stories and pictures expressing the amazing skills learned through DECA, a career and technical student organization for students interested in marketing or entrepreneurship.
Executive DECA President D’Andre Vasquez with AR DECA President Brett Thrower of Vilonia HS.
2019-2020 AR DECA Executive Officer Team pictured below: Mitchell Gray, VP of Finance, Vilonia; Seth Cole, VP of Hospitality, Alma; Emily Beck, VP of Leadership, Pea Ridge, Lauro Molina, VP of Marketing, Decatur; Conor Clardy, VP of Career Development, Har-Ber; Brett Thrower, President, Vilonia.
November—DECA Month Photo Challenge https://www.decadirect.org/2019/10/21/get-ready-for-decamonth-2019/ The #DECAMonth Photo Challenge is the perfect way to share what DECA means to you with your friends and social media followers. Each day of November, there is a different DECA-related theme, and we challenge you to find the perfect photo or video for each theme. DECA shared a calendar with all members showing the daily theme for photos. Members posted pictures related to the daily theme using #DECAmonth. Arkansas was very well represented in November, with lots of tweets and posts to Instagram! The AR DECA state officer team presided over two regional fall conferences this month; one at Rogers High School and one at the Benton Event Center.
Leading by example, Alma advisor Sherry Siler presented a session at Power Trip in Washington D.C. The state officer team also presented a session at the DECA Power Trip held November 15-17 in Washington D.C. about the importance of teamwork. These emerging leaders are creating bright futures for themselves and inspiring those around them!
During their Power Trip, when they were not in leadership development sessions, Arkansas students were able to tour D.C., experience the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and visit with Senator John Boozman. Senator Boozman tweeted “It was great to visit with students from @pearidge_deca and @AlmaDECA this morning to talk about the impact of Career & Technical Education and why it needs to continue being funded. These students are great advocates and products of @ArkansasDECA�.
Members of Alma DECA attended an Alma Rotary meeting, where they were able to talk about their DECA opportunities and experiences. The Rotary Club also made a donation to their chapter.
Leaders of Alma DECA spoke at an Alma Rotary meeting.
Year 2 Student Success Plan Professional Development Source: Barbara Lensing, Program Advisor, Office of Career Readiness and Work-Based Learning
Year 2 Student Success Plan Professional Development was recently held at every Co-op in the state. The Office of Career Readiness and Work Based Learning went to each Co-op, along with other members of the Department of Education, to discuss Year 2 of the Student Success Plans with counselors and teachers. The goal for this professional development was to provide counselors and teachers with resources for conversation starters and ideas for building relationships with students. Topics focused on College and Career Readiness planning tools such as Kuder and Naviance, among others, that each school could use to assess student interests. Mary Beck and Barbara Lensing were on hand to discuss Career Development and how well it aligns with the Student Success Plan. Participants also learned to navigate the DCTE website to look at Career Development standards. This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in learning more about the course.
Thomas Coy, Public School Program Manager, discussed Student Success Plans
Career Development aligns with all four required components of the Student Success Plan: 1. Career Development guides students on the pathway to graduation by starting the Education and Training Plan in 8th grade, which follows them to high school. 2. Career Development addresses accelerated learning opportunities such as career pathways, job shadowing, guest speakers who share career experiences with students, internships, apprenticeships and other opportunities available through schools. 3. Career Development addresses academic deficits and interventions by showing how distractors and barriers can hinder completing plans. Examples of actions that hinder student success are arriving late to a job, using a cell phone at work, positive drug testing, negative credit checks and a negative social media presence. Such behavior can have detrimental effects on a job or a job search. 4. Career Development enhances college and career planning components by utilizing college and career readiness assessments, interest inventories, aptitude inventories and industry-recognized credentials such as the Career Readiness Certificate and other industry recognized certifications. It also uses college and career planning tools such as Xello, Kuder and Naviance, which the schools already have, and the student uses for their Career Development Portfolio.
Certifications Validate Skills Why do students need certifications? Certifications validate skills. CTE students in Arkansas have many opportunities to validate workplace skills by earning industry-recognized credentials such as Microsoft Office Specialist certifications. MS Office is the most widely used tool for communicating and sharing information in offices across the globe. Reports indicate that nearly all professionals have at least a basic understanding of Microsoft Office, and 68% of mid-range jobs now require at least a general understanding of Microsoft Office applications. Common requirements in recent job postings are proficiency in MS Word and Excel. Arkansas CTE Business and Marketing students are taking advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate their computer skills! Our state goal for 2019-2020 is that 15,000 Microsoft certifications will be earned by Arkansas CTE students. We ended the 2018-2019 school year with 14,389 certifications earned, and we are well on our way to exceeding our 15,000 goal this year! Mrs. Alice Cooper, of Jasper High School says “We have had 31 MOS certifications and 26 Financial Literacy W!se certifications! I am blessed and happy!!� All that before Thanksgiving! Way to go Jasper High School!
First quarter state statistics show a steady increase in certifications year over year since 2012.
WEST FORK FCCLA MEMBER WINS NATIONAL JAPANESE EXCHANGE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Congratulations to CTE student Olivia Kierstead, who is a member of the West Fork Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Chapter. Olivia was selected to receive one of only 14 scholarships for the 2019 FCCLA Japanese Exchange scholarship awards, sponsored by the Kikkoman Corporation and FCCLA.
About FCCLA Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a dynamic and effective national student organization that helps young men and women become
leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through Family and Consumer Sciences education. FCCLA has more than 164,000 members and
The FCCLA Japanese Exchange scholarship opportunity is for FCCLA members to travel to Japan for four-to-six
more than 5,300 chapters from 49 state associations, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
weeks as an exchange student. This scholarship is funded by the Kikkoman Corporation, administered by Youth for Understanding USA. Scholarships are worth more than $11,000 each.
The FCCLA Japanese Exchange Scholarship is an opportunity for FCCLA members built on the foundational belief that international understanding can be achieved through individuals. The program emphasizes family living as the core of the overseas learning experience. FCCLA believes that the opportunity to experience the day-to-day life of another country and its culture will enhance students' awareness of international issues.
Olivia shared, "I am so grateful for this experience that I have been given. Visiting countries overseas has always been a dream of mine. I am excited to see what this opportunity will bring for me and how it will affect my future.�
We are very proud of Olivia and wish her all the best as she experiences this honored adventure.
I am so grateful for this experience that I have been given. Visiting countries overseas has always been a dream of mine.
Our Leadership Team
MISSION To prepare students for future college and career success.
VISION The Arkansas Department of Education is committed to transforming Arkansas to lead the nation in student-focused education so that every child graduates ready for college, career, and community engagement. In our 21 century economy, the lines between college, techst
nical education and career have blurred. And to succeed on any of these paths, our students need more complex academic skills, including creative problem solving, synthesis and design; they need interpersonal and teamwork skills; and they need a work ethic and flexibility to thrive in an economic and technological future where change and inno-
Johnny Key Secretary of the Department of Education Dr. Ivy Pfeffer Deputy Commissioner Department of Education Dr. Angela Kremers Director Division of Career and Technical Education Sonja Wright-McMurray Associate Director DCTE Career Readiness/Work-Based Learning
vation will be constant.
CORE VALUES This vision for excellent, student-centered CTE has five key goals that are aligned with the goals in Arkansas’ ESSA plan that was approved by the U.S. Department of Education in January 2018:
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