{"id":196711,"date":"2025-09-05T09:23:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=196711"},"modified":"2025-09-05T09:23:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:23:43","slug":"vantage-cc-celebrates-notable-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/09\/05\/vantage-cc-celebrates-notable-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Vantage CC celebrates notable milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 years of Vantage Career Center was celebrated during a brief ceremony held Friday morning at the Van Wert campus. Officials with the Van Wert Chamber of Commerce, school officials and others gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony and a plaque presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vantage opened to high school juniors and seniors as a vocational school in 1976 and it’s often referred to now as a career technical center.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Vantage Superintendent Rick Turner accepts a special plaque from Van Wert Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Verville. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible and when you reflect back 50 years in the community and all the students that have gone through here, both high school and adult, the training that they\u2019ve gotten and how that\u2019s helped them in their careers and given them a better life,\u201d Superintendent Rick Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said in turn, Vantage students have assisted businesses by providing help in the workforce and he lauded the community in general for supporting Vantage for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t do it without the tremendous community support that we have,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While students began attending Vantage in the fall of 1976, Turner noted it is indeed the school\u2019s milestone 50th<\/sup> anniversary and he said when September of 2026 rolls around, Vantage will begin Year No. 51. He also noted that he himself was a student at Vantage, beginning in the fall of 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOut of the 50 years, I\u2019ve been affiliated in some way or form for 49 years,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the school has gone through many changes over the years but Turner noted perhaps the biggest one is the perception of career-technical education in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack then it was so new\u2026l remember talk even after I was a student \u2018how are you going to put all of these students from different schools into one building and have everybody get along and have it all work?\u2019\u201d, he stated. \u201cWe went from that to how collabrative it is now and our partnership with our associate schools. Our enrollment has never been better and it\u2019s just been a successful story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another big change over the years has been more emphasis on academics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I went here in the early days you took English your junior year and government your senior year and you graduated,\u201d Turner explained. \u201cNow they do a half-day of career tech and the other half-day of academics they need to graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vantage serves students from 13 schools in five county area (Allen, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam and Van Wert): Antwerp, Continental, Crestview, Delphos Jefferson, Delphos St. John\u2019s, Fort Jennings, Kalida, Lincolnview, Ottoville, Parkway, Paulding, Van Wert and Wayne Trace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19 programs are available to high school students \u2013 Ag and Industrial Power Technology, Auto Collision Repair, Auto Technology, Carpentry, Construction Equipment Technology, Cosmetology, Criminal Justice, Culinary Arts, Early Childhood, Electricity, Health Technology, Industrial Mechanics, Interactive Media, Machining and Engineering Technologies, Medical Assisting, Network Systems, Sports Exercise Therapy, Transition to Work and Welding. Various adult education and post-secondary options are available as well, including Certified Nursing Assistant, CDL, Emergency Medical Technician, Firefighter 1, LPN-RN Transition Program, Phlebotomy, Police Academy, Practical Nursing Pathways and Welding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor 50 years of Vantage Career Center was celebrated during a brief ceremony held Friday morning at the Van Wert campus. Officials with the Van Wert Chamber of Commerce, school officials and others gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony and a plaque presentation. Vantage opened to high school juniors and seniors as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 14:31:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196713,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196711\/revisions\/196713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}