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On March 1st-2nd North Technical TREND members, Health Science students, and Culinary Arts students reached out to students with special needs in the 5th annual Achievement Days 2010 Event.  In cooperation with the Special School District Character Plus Program, over eighty North Tech students served in a variety of roles helping to make this a day to remember for special needs students in both our cooperating schools as well as our SSD buildings. The theme of the Achievement Days event was to “Pave the Way for 4-H”.  4-H is a youth organization with the stated mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development."  The four focus areas of 4-H are head, heart, hands, and health.  This is embodied by the 4-H Pledge which states "I Pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living, for my club, community, my country, and my world." (4-H.org, 2009).  Some of the roles carried out by our North Tech students at this event include exercise routines, pillow making, scrap-booking, puppet making, a food toss, a blood pressure measuring table, a food education table, and many other hands-on activities.  It was a wonderful opportunity for North Technical students to develop leadership qualities and to enrich their lives by helping special needs children. Students found that reaching out to others can be a rewarding, gratifying, and enjoyable experience.

NorthTech has its best showing ever as 55 Students head to the State SkillsUSA Competition held at Linn State Technical College in Linn, MO.

North Technical High School recently held its SkillsUSA Awards ceremony to recognize winners of the various SkillsUSA contests held throughout the school year at Lewis & Clark, Ranken, and Forest Park.  Under the supervision of Esther Angelos, who was nominated as the Missouri Skills USA Teacher of the Year, North Technical garnered a tremendous list of medals and awards (complete list shown below), which included almost twenty 1st place honors.  The school will be sending 55 students to the State SkillsUSA Competiion, which represents the largest contingent of students that North Technical has ever sent to the state level.  The state competition will be held in late March at Linn State Technical College in Linn, Missouri.   Ms. Angelos will be recognized for her recent SkillsUSA Teacher of the Year achievement at the Linn, Missori competition.  Congratulations to Ms. Angelos, the SkillsUSA advisors, and all the students for such a successful year of competition!

James Bell and Cody Emahiser showcase their winning talents at the regional Jobs for Missouri Graduates (JMG) contest.

On February 24, James Bell (Culinary Arts) and Cody Emahiser (Automotive Technology) showcased their job attainment skills in the JMG regional Employability Skills competition titled “Empowering the Next Generation”.  The theme of the competition inspired the pair to create a banner that ultimately garnered a regional 1st place finish in the contest.  As a result of brainstorming at a chapter meeting, James and Cody combined their ideas and talents in creating a full size banner that best illustrated and captured the theme of the contest.  The winning banner depicts the regal North Tech Eagle flying with the trailing theme, emphasizing that opportunity for success is infinite and the sky is the limit. Behind the doors stands a graduate who has persevered through the many years of lessons, course work, and classes.  The opened doors serve to remind us that high school graduation is just a mere step away from “empowerment” into the world of independence.  Depicted on the doors are the program codes for the 2009-2010 soon to be JMG graduates.  The stars characterize the hopes and dreams of graduates as they go forth to pursue post-secondary education and/or employment.  No doubt James and Cody themselves have demonstrated that they are “empowered” for success.
          Jobs for Missouri Graduates (JMG) is a project funded by the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, and is affiliated with the national Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) organization.  The stated goal of JMG is to help today’s youth secure a quality job that will lead to a good career, either directly after high school or after post secondary education (Alternative Opportunities Inc., 2009).  If this contest is any indication, James and Cody already have a good head start on their future career endeavors
          A special thank you goes out to Mr. Hanneken (General Construction Trades instructor) and Keith Sigh (GCT student) for putting together the frame on which the background fabric is stretched and for framing the plexiglas for the doors.  Thank you also to Chanell Hunt who was there to help when called upon.