Institutes

CHOICE Students Wow DOE Commissioner Winn
  September 14, 2006

Senior Kyle Stark explains his conceptual model of a virtual robot to Education Commissioner John Winn and Chancellor of Community Colleges and Workforce Development David Armstrong.

The CHOICE IT students and top state educators listen to a presentation by IT Dean Patti Bonezzi.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Frank Fuller explains the rigor involved in the CHOICE courses, which prepare students for college and the workforce.

Winn and Deputy Commissioner Hanna Skandera enjoy Curt Lavigne's movie poster "starring" Winn and Superintendent Don Gaetz. (In background, instructor Michelle Cook.)

Senior Curt Lavigne created a movie poster “starring” Commissioner John Winn and Superintendent Don Gaetz, while Brad Barker showed how website statistics are analyzed and Kyle Stark showed off the Visual Basic skills which won him third place in a national contest.

The commissioner and a group of DOE leaders, including Chancellor David Armstrong, got to know the students during a Friday visit to the CHOICE IT Institute at Niceville High School. The educators are in the process of mapping the future of career education in Florida and were interested in seeing first-hand how the cutting-edge CHOICE program was being implemented.

Winn was impressed by the students’ knowledge as well as their passion for their studies. “They’re leaving school with a skill they enjoy and can continue to work on, making money at this part-time and preparing for college. What more could we ask for?” he said.

The CHOICE model of career education is based on three key elements: nationally recognized industry certification for courses, a partnership with a post-secondary education institution and a close relationship with the local Workforce Development Board.

CHOICE Aerospace Dean Leo Murphy spoke about the aviation industry and its strong connection to this community. “Our students have access to all of these,” he said, pointing to slides of the latest in high technology military aircraft. “We also were the first to offer a course in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.”

“It’s terrific to get kids engaged in high school like this. This is the type of thing we want to replicate,” commented Winn. “It’s important to do what works for the local area and work closely with Workforce. My vision is to have every high school have some sort of specialty – it could be the arts, entrepeneurship or an educator academy.”

Assistant Superintendent Frank Fuller noted that the coursework for all the CHOICE institutes is very rigorous, because of the emphasis on industry certification. “CHOICE prepares you for work and for college. You have to read on at least an 11th grade level to pass the ASE for automotive maintenance,” he noted. “This really is reading for information, not just for content."

IT Dean Patti Bonezzi recalled having to completely revamp the curriculum when they first opened the IT Institute, because of one "very serious complaint" by the students: the material just wasn’t hard enough. She had to bump all of the students into the next level of their courses. "They exceeded our expectations," she said.

“There are two types of kids this reaches,” commented Gaetz, “The smart kids who are bored with school and the kids who struggle who have nothing to struggle for.” He pointed out that this year, three-quarters of the students who received CHOICE scholarships and certifications had no other scholarships except for what they had earned through CHOICE: “We’re reaching a whole new group of students, not doubling up on the same ones.