Last Monday I started doing a 12 part blog series over the final weeks of school to highlight our communities. So much has changed in our school landscape since then, however I still want to focus on the great partnerships that make Vantage a special place.
In that last post I mentioned how running sometimes gives me time to think and often times inspires my thoughts. That is the case again this week, as this past weekend I went for a run with one of my former athletes, who is now running in college at Heidelberg. Talk about motivation in a time where many of us are trying to figure out our new reality. To give you the background, this young man just got his College Outdoor Track season cancelled by the NCAA on his 21st birthday. For many people that would create a lot of anger and depressed feelings, however he had such a positive attitude about his training and future that it rubbed off on me. For that reason, this week I want to continue highlighting our communities by focusing on that community I coach in: Fort Jennings.
Thirteen years ago I started my career in education as a teacher at Vantage. In my third year of teaching I started to coach track and field at Fort Jennings. Through my years at Vantage and my years of coaching I've gotten to know many students from Fort Jennings very well. One of the high school teammates of the young man mentioned above was Kyle Maag. I got to know Kyle very well in high school, because not only was he an athlete that I coached, but he was also a student here at Vantage (Industrial Mechanics). I always knew Kyle would be very successful after graduation, so it was no surprise when he reached out to me a couple months ago to say he was looking to hire a new employee at Fenson Contracting. Luckily, we were able to help him out.
Currently this year, Thomas Calvelage is getting the most out of his time in the Construction program here at Vantage. He interned with Webken Masonry this past fall and now is working for Fenson Contracting in Jennings.
Last week I mentioned that spring is a time when many of our seniors have jobs lined up for after graduation and those that excel in the classroom have the opportunity to do advanced job placement through our CAP (Career Advanced Placement) Program. Tyler Kahle (Industrial Mechanics) is doing just that by working for BK Tool and Design in Kalida.
Speaking of BK, last week I also mentioned that many of our junior students are already lining up summer jobs/internships, and that is the case with Nathan Sealts (Precision Machining) who has been working at BK this school year, Derek Weyrauch (Welding) working at Unverferth Manufacturing, and Eli Zehender (Ag & Industrial Power) working at A & D Automotive.
Keep up the good work guys!
I'm sure I forgot to highlight some of our other Jennings students that are doing amazing things as well, so if I missed you with a shout out, I am sorry!
As I mentioned above, many of us are looking for new routines and new motivation to get through our days because so much in our lives has changed in the past week. I have been so impressed with our students this week and the effort that they are making to learn. Their effort is truly motivating to me. So many times in life we look to our coaches, teachers and mentors for motivation, but this past week it has been this coach/teacher being motivated by the students/athletes. Our future is bright with these young people coming up! We will get through this, and our students will lead the way!
Last week marked 12 weeks left in the school year. It's hard to believe that we are approaching graduation and summer break already! For those of you that know me pretty well, you know that running is something that I like to do in my free time. Currently I am in the middle of training for the Boston Marathon, so on most Saturday mornings I can be found running the streets of Delphos, getting anywhere from 10 to 20 miles in on the roads. Often times I consider these runs as therapy sessions, as they give me plenty of time to reflect and think. While running through town this past weekend I started thinking about all the good things our students are doing in the communities that we serve and thus came the idea of doing a 12 part blog series over the final weeks of school to highlight our communities. With that being said I am going to start with the community that this idea started in: Delphos.
Delphos is a special community for Vantage, as it is the only one that contains two of our schools: Delphos Jefferson and St. John's High Schools. The students from these schools are accomplishing great things this year at Vantage. When I started writing this blog I began by posting pictures of some of the students in action, but soon realized that I would not have enough room to post everyone, so if I missed you with a shout out, I am sorry! Here are some of the highlights:
Over the weekend Chase Martin qualified for the State Wrestling Meet. Chase is a junior from St. John's in our Electricity Lab. In the summer he works for ATR Mechanical and plans to work towards an Electrical Engineering degree after high school (hopefully through an apprenticeship). Good luck this weekend, Chase!
Recently, several of our Delphos Jefferson students placed at the SkillsUSA regional competition and will be competing at State during the first week of April:
- Mark Rice will be competing in the Carpentry competition. Mark is a senior in our Carpentry Lab who plans on working for Miller Bros. Construction after graduation.
- John Pseekos and Tanner Mathewson will be competing in the Welding Fabrication competition. They are both seniors in our Welding program. After graduation Tanner plans on working at Unverferth Manufacturing and John also plans on pursuing a career in Welding.
Good luck at State!
A couple more current Delphos students have excelled in past competitions that are also worth noting:
Gunnar Stemen was our local winner of the Poetry Out Loud contest here at Vantage. He is a senior from St. John's in our Network Systems program. Gunnar plans on attending the Ohio State University next year, majoring in Computer Programming.
Bridget Martin (Health Technology, Delphos Jefferson) competed at HOSA Nationals last summer in Florida! She competed in the Nursing Assistant competition as a junior. As a senior, Bridget has earned her CPR/First Aid, STNA, Certified EKG Technician, and EMT Basic Certifications! She plans on majoring in Nursing at Wright State next year.
Lastly, spring is a time when many of our seniors have jobs lined up for after graduation and those that excel in the classroom have the opportunity to do advanced job placement through our CAP (Career Advanced Placement) Program. Here is a quick shout out to Logan Teman and Hunter Mericle (both seniors in Industrial Mechanics from Delphos Jefferson) who are both on Advanced Placement. Logan is working for Krendl Machine and Hunter is working for Vanamatic, both in Delphos. Keep up the good work guys!
Soon, many of our junior students will also be lining up summer jobs/internships. Just a couple weeks ago Dustin Pohlman and Abbi Price from ATR came in and presented to our juniors about these kinds of opportunities. Thank you to our business partners in Delphos for all that you do to support our students!
As a resident of the Delphos area, I am so proud of our students. I also look forward to many future success stories of how our students have benefited from the partnerships that exist between our schools and businesses!
