{"id":87019,"date":"2017-04-27T07:47:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T12:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=87019"},"modified":"2017-04-28T07:54:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T12:54:32","slug":"vwhs-celebrates-career-education-opportunity-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/04\/27\/vwhs-celebrates-career-education-opportunity-program\/","title":{"rendered":"VWHS celebrates 1st year of CEO program"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Van Wert High School students and business representatives celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Career Education Opportunity (CEO) program during a breakfast held Wednesday morning at Willow Bend Country Club.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students who participated in the inaugural year of Van Wert High School’s Career Education Opportunity (CEO) program pose following a breakfast held at Willow Bend Country Club.<\/strong> photos by Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VWHS Principal Bob Priest welcomes students and business people to the breakfast, while guidance counselor Kerry Koontz, who developed the CEO program, talked about how the program was created, while also thanking businesses for being involved in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program today is where it\u2019s at because of the partnership that you\u2019ve allowed us to create and form with you,\u201d Koontz said.<\/p>\n

Businesses involved in the program\u2019s first year include Alliance Automation, Calvary Preschool, Central Mutual Insurance Company, Custom Audio Concepts, KAM Manufacturing, CQT Kennedy Manufacturing, National Door and Trim, Northwest Trophy and Screen Printing, Vancrest Health Care Center, Van Wert Manor, and Van Wert County Hospital\u2019s Van Wert Wellness Therapy Solutions.<\/p>\n

Priest had good words for the students who were involved in the program\u2019s inaugural year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students we have in here today are self-driven, they have ambition, they know where they want to go,\u201d the VWHS principal said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got some experiences that they\u2019re building right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VWHS
VWHS guidance counselor Kerry Koontz talks about the CEO program.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students participating include Spencer Teman, Madison Pauquette, Selena Witten, Austin Hammons, Ryan Keber, Sarah Linser, Morgan Bracken, Emma Kohn, Jessie Agler, Cheyenne Brown, Colin McHugh, Aimee Nicolai, Jena Rex-LaRue, Sierra Blackmore, Alex Bartley, Bethany Fast, and Kateri Steinecker.<\/p>\n

Teman said the experience was a good one and also validated his decision to earn a mechanical engineering degree at Miami University in Oxford. \u201cI got some exposure to real-world concepts, like programming languages I\u2019ve never seen or heard of,\u201d Teman said.<\/p>\n

In addition to providing career experience, the CEO program also provided some students with information they needed to decide a career wasn\u2019t for them.<\/p>\n

Brandon Miller of Kennedy Manufacturing noted that his company provided an internship for a student who wanted to go into graphic design and marketing, but, after doing the job for a few weeks, decided she didn\u2019t want to do that for a living.<\/p>\n

Miller said he could identify with that student, since he pursued an accounting degree at Miami for three years before deciding accounting wasn\u2019t what he wanted to do for a career. Miller also noted the fact that he is now in management at Kennedy, despite not finishing a degree, shows students have other choices other than college to be successful.<\/p>\n

The students and employers who attended the breakfast shared their experiences in the program this past year, with students saying the program provided valuable experience for them — with many saying it also validated their career choice — while providing good interaction between businesses and students.<\/p>\n

Koontz also talked about the fact that the CEO program shows that college is not the only option after high school graduation, although guidance counselors, including those at Van Wert, had traditionally promoted college for many years to all students.<\/p>\n

Last year, during a news conference to announce creation of the CEO program, Koontz noted that, in addition to getting students to rethink their options, when it comes to college, parents also had to be reeducated to understand that college wasn\u2019t the only — and maybe not be best — option for their children.<\/p>\n

The guidance counselor especially noted that, with Baby Boomers retiring in ever-increasing numbers, there are good career options becoming available locally that don\u2019t require a college education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have jobs available in our community right now that are going unfilled, and I look at that, and say, \u2018That\u2019s a problem\u2019,\u201d Koontz said, noting that he will be creating a workforce development program this coming year to train high school students for those positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert High School students and business representatives celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Career Education Opportunity (CEO) program during a breakfast held Wednesday morning at Willow Bend Country Club. VWHS Principal Bob Priest welcomes students and business people to the breakfast, while guidance counselor Kerry Koontz, who developed the CEO program, […]<\/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-87019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 09:33:27","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\/87019","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=87019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}