OCS CTAE News

March 2021

Welcome to the Oconee County Schools CTAE Newsletter!

Welcome to the Oconee County Schools CTAE Newsletter!

Wonderful things are going on in all of our CTAE programs. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures and articles you find below!


Beth Parks

Oconee County Schools

Director of CTAE

Welcome to the Oconee County Schools CTAE Newsletter!
WBL Young Dawg Presentations

WBL Young Dawg Presentations

The OCS Work-Based Learning program is beginning it's thirteenth year with the University of Georgia's Young Dawgs internship program, a career-related educational partnership. The Young Dawgs internship program contributes valuable career-related education to our high-achieving Work-Based Learning students with a specific career focus. Students participate in unpaid, rigorous internships on campus throughout the university. There is a "sharing" relationship between our students and the Young Dawgs mentors; students become acclimated to postsecondary and learning has been redesigned to include unique field and research experiences utilizing creative problem-solving and discovery. This relationship creates such enthusiasm for our WBL students as they "jump start" their careers, starting with their education. As part of the educational experience, each WBL Young Dawgs student must present his/her internship project work in a final presentation, given to an audience of peers, professors in the field of study, teacher, and parents. Student presentations from surrounding counties and school systems are judged by UGA faculty, and the OCS Work-Based Learning program has been well-represented with final presentation winners through the years.


Pictured: Alex Benoit - Health Science Infectious Disease Lab

WBL Young Dawg Presentations

CTAE Month Celebrations!

February is recognized nationally as CTAE Month and is a time to promote the great things happening in our CTAE programs. Additionally, all of the Career & Technical Student Organizations hold recognition weeks during the month of February as well. The CTAE programs in all of our middle and high schools did special activities throughout the month of February to promote their programs, recognize student achievements, and show appreciation towards the teachers in the buildings.


The OCS CTAE Department also took this opportunity to show the counselors at both the middle and high schools how much we appreciate the guidance and support they offer to all of our students as they choose their high school courses, compare pathway choices, and begin to prepare for their post-secondary plans. Lunch was provided to counselors and guidance department staff to show our thanks and each individual received a t-shirt with the OCS CTAE logo. We want to give a big thank-you to Piedmont Regional for sponsoring this lunch and the shirts!

2021 Georgia Junior National Livestock Show

This past weekend Oconee County FFA members traveled to Perry, GA to participate in the Georgia Junior National Livestock Show. This show is a culmination of year long projects for students fulfilling their SAE programs. All Agriculture Students are required to have in place a Supervised Agriculture Education Program (SAE). A student’s SAE can focus on one or more agriculture career categories including plant systems, environmental systems, power/structural/technical systems, food systems, and animals systems. Middle school SAE programs may include building small furniture pieces such as book shelves, end-tables, corn-hole board sets, volunteering at a local veterinary office or planting a raised-bed garden. High school SAE programs may include agri-business job placement such as working at the local feed and seed dealer, entrepreneurship ventures such as operating a small landscape maintenance business or conducting high-level agriscience research on an agriculture topic.The agriculture programs offer students the opportunity to purchase, raise, and exhibit livestock animals, species include beef cattle, market hogs, market and breeding goats, and market and breeding sheep.The livestock program offers students a unique opportunity to use livestock animals to develop youth leadership life skills in our students, helping them to become productive citizens in our community and world. Students develop responsibility, work-ethic, integrity, sportsmanship, honesty, goal setting, and learn how to accept constructive criticism in the show ring all while making a real-world connection to our global food system. Family involvement plays a vital role in the success of the student’s livestock program, creating stronger family-member bonds. The Livestock Exhibition SAE is unique in that it requires a greater investment of time, energy, family involvement and financial resources than most other SAE programs. Facilities, housing, and equipment are the greatest limiting factors in student participation in the livestock SAE.


Oconee County Schools, the FFA Alumni Organization, and generous individual community supporters have made functional livestock facilities a reality, thus enabling many families to participate who otherwise would not even consider the program.


Congratulations to the following students who placed in the top 3 in their event:


Margret Winn Carnes - NOHS

Kinsley Reeder - NOHS

Alivia Kentnor - NOHS

Christian Page - NOHS

Emma Turner - OCHS

Lexi Pritchard - OCHS

Katherine Coletti - MBMS

Joe Stanley - MBMS

High School FBLA Region Leadership Conference

Students from each middle school and each high school had the opportunity to showcase their talents and knowledge through participating in competitive events at the FBLA Region Leadership Conference. A virtual awards show was held in January during which the winners were announced in each category. We are so proud of the following students for their great achievements!


Oconee County High School


Students Advancing to State Competition:


Business Calculations

1st Place - Victor Huang

3rd Place - Ben Munneke

4th Place - Luke Morneault

6th Place - Haruki Takeuchi

7th Place - Daniel Magee


Economics

2nd Place - Rajeev Das

4th Place - Haruki Takeuchi



Personal Finance

1st Place - Victor Huang

2nd Place - Daniel Magee


Sports & Entertainment Management

1st Place - Luke Morneault, Ben Munneke, Eli Nelson


Job Interview

2nd Place - Adam Traill


Students placing high in Region Competition but do not advance to State:


Digital Video Production

1st Place - Jackson Davis, Hudson O'Donnell, Bailey Wingrove

2nd Place - Spencer Bright, Rajeev Das, Eli Nelson


Graphic Design

4th Place - Abbie Chen, Rui Wang, Jessie Xu


Help Desk

7th Place - Hudson O'Donnell


Marketing

2nd Place - Spencer Bright

4th Place - Ethan Ward


Sports & Entertainment Management

2nd Place - Ethan Ward


Website Design

2nd Place - Abbie Chen, Rui Wang, Jessie Xu


Future Business Leader

4th Place - Adam Traill


North Oconee High School


Students Advancing to State Competition:


Business Calculations

2nd Place - Ben Stevens


Business Communications

9th Place - Katie Oh


Business Ethics

2nd Place - Michelle Li


Economics

1st Place - Ben Stevens


Intro to Business Communications

2nd Place - Michelle Li

6th Place - Frida Alejandro


Intro to Business Presentation

1st Place - Jack Rumpf and Aaron Yang


Intro to Financial Math

2nd Place - Aaron Yang


Intro to Social Media Concepts

2nd Place - Kiara Marr Visitacion, Sophia Bustamante Galizzi, Amy Shan


Personal Finance

3rd Place - Katie Oh


Social Media Strategies

2nd Place - Briana Setchel


Students placing high in Region Competition but do not advance to State:


Graphic Design

1st Place - Michael Czarick and Scott Fitz Gerald


Intro to Public Speaking

5th Place - Frida Alejandro


Web Design

1st Place - Michael Czarick and Scott Fitz Gerald

Middle School FBLA Region Leadership Conference

FBLA members from each middle school had the opportunity to showcase their knowledge at skills at the FBLA Region Leadership Conference in December. A virtual awards ceremony was held in January to announce the winners in each category. We are so proud of all of our students who competed and the students listed below who placed in the top 3!


Oconee County Middle School


1st Place Winners:

Charlie C. - Business Concepts

Jack M. - Public Speaking

Charlie C. - Business Math & Financial Literacy


2nd Place Winners:

Jack M. - Employability Skills

Hudson Y. - Career Exploration

Hudson Y. - Business Etiquette


3rd Place Winners:

Cooper D. - Career Exploration

Will L. - Creed


Malcom Bridge Middle School


1st Place Winners:

Deeya Mepani - Employability Skills

Cole Pearson - Intro to Computer Science

Jenny Hernandez-Taboada - Digital Citizenship

Deeya Mepani, Coleman Pearson & Bochen Shen - Critical Thinking

Sam Seward - Computer & Internet Concepts


2nd Place Winners:

Emory Carroll - Computer & Internet Concepts

Yu Zhou - Business Concepts

Bochen Shen - Business Math & Financial Literacy

Viren Shah - Digital Citizenship

Kian Visitacion - FBLA Concepts

Gabriel Gemao - Introduction to Business Communication

Sam Seward - Introduction to Computer Science & Coding

Viren Shah - Social Media Concepts


3rd Place Winners:

Kian Visitacion - Business Concepts

Jenny Hernandez-Taboada - Computer & Internet Concepts

Gabriel Gemao - Introduction to Computer Science & Coding

Dhruv Patel - Marketing Concepts

OCHS FCCLA Region Competition

The FCCLA chapter from Oconee County High School recently competed in the Region STARS Events. Each student created a digital portfolio and filmed themselves presenting their projects. Teachers and community members from around the region served as judges for this virtual event utilizing digital rubrics to determine winners. The top two entries in each event will advance to State Competition.


Congratulations to the following students:


1st Place - Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation Level 3

Annalise Hale & Kensley McConnell


1st Place - Promote and Publicize FCCLA! Level 3

Chloe Graham, Julianna Hayunga & Ashley Langford


1st Place - Sports Nutrition Level 3

Anna Kate Bell & Vivian Sekandi


2nd Place - Repurpose and Redesign Level 3

Sadie Campbell, Hannah Rowe & Isabel Saunders

OCHS FIRST Robotics League

The Warrior Engineers have been competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge since September of this school year. While this school year has presented many challenges, these engineers have been willing to adapt and overcome. On January 16th the Warrior Engineering Robotics team, Gears and Spears competed in the area tournament. The team entered the event in 2nd place, and by the end of the event finished up winning the Inspire Award. This is the top award at any FIRST Robotics event, and was the first for any robotics team at Oconee County High School. The league season currently wrapped up with Gears and Spears ranked 3rd in the State, which has qualified for the State Tournament on April 11th.
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DECA State conference

In December thirteen OCHS DECA members participated in Region Competition virtually. Eleven members placed in the top 3 (4-1st, 5-2nd, and 2-3rd). This qualified them to compete at the State Level 2 in January. We would like to give a big congratulations to Sarah Jane who is the State Runner Up in the area of Restaurant and Food Management. Her 2nd place finish qualifies her to compete at the National Level in April!

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