Dr. Amy Cashwell, superintendent of Henrico County Schools, talks to us about the importance of CTE programs for students in Henrico County. Amy Lorenzo, Policy Director for Idaho Career and Technical Education, and Steve Rayborn, Deputy Administrator for Idaho Career and Technical Education were in the Richmond area for a conference and heard a lot about Henrico CTE and came for a visit. Of course, we had to have them as guests on our CTE Now podcast. Please join us for another great podcast.

As promised we have part 2 of our Life Ready Expo coverage. In part 2 we are talking with parents and students who attended our very first Life Ready Expo. I hope you enjoy it. 

Henrico CTE had a very successful Life Ready Expo with over 150 businesses and over 2000 parents and 8th to 12-grade students. We were able to interview representatives of just a few of the businesses at the Expo. These are great interviews with different industries and showed the importance of business partnerships with Henrico CTE and how we can connect students with these companies and the career tracks they offer.  Our next episode will have parents and students we interviewed during the expo so please like and subscribe! 

Recently the Henrico CTE Now hosts, Rashawn and Mike were invited to hold a demonstration of our podcast to other CTE administrators in Virginia who attended the Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education Conference in Virginia Beach. We had great audiences and 4 great guests from all over Virginia. Here is the combined podcasts from our visit. Our first 2 guests were Kenny Ballance, the Director of Career and Technical Education for Louisa County and Darla Miller, Principal of Valley Career and Technical Center, which is one of 9 regional centers in Virginia. In our second segment, our guests were Jen Alberts, Program Manager Health for Medical Sciences at Fairfax County Schools and Cathy Zanella, Instructional Team Leader with Culpepper County Schools. 

This episode we interview Technology Education teacher, Rob Doolidge, at Short Pump Middle School. Rob talks to us on the importance of student's involvement with Tech Ed and how it can develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through hands-on woods and metals projects. Rob is a high energy teacher who has built great programs that are highly sought out by many Short Pump Middle students.

Spencer Werneth, an EMT student at the Hermitage ACE Center, and his parents Bonnie and Sam, are with us today to talk to us about Spencer’s journey to be Life Ready through Henrico CTE. Spencer is a senior that took Sports Medicine as a junior last year and is currently in the EMT program. We talked to Spencer and his parents about his experiences with the ACE Centers as he prepares himself for college.

Sue Maddock talks to us about the company she works, IGS, for and how they want to partner with Henrico CTE and hire our students. IGS is an international company based right here in the Richmond area. As soon as Sue met with Mac Beaton, Director of Henrico CTE, she was on-board with becoming one of our newest business partner and is excited about being able to hire our students this year.    https://integratedglobal.com/

Today's guests are Susan Moore, Director of Facilities at Henrico County Public Schools and her son Zack Moore, is a mobile repair mechanic for Richmond Machinery. They discuss how a CTE education touched their lives and how it gave Zack a head start toward his career. Zack has a twin brother Luke who took a different path and instead of becoming a mechanic he became a Henrico firefighter after college. Both brothers both ended up in a trade but took different paths. One by way of college and the other started with a CTE education in high school before college. A great discussion on getting college and career ready. Susan Moore also talks about her department hiring our CTE students. Sorry but we had some recording anomalies in this episode. 

Our guest is Angela Stewart who is a Professional Development Specialist in the Professional Learning & Leadership Department with Henrico County Public Schools. One of her duties is to help new CTE teachers who may be coming from the world of work, transition into teaching. This is important to help great business people become great teachers.

We were privileged to have Rai Beasley visit us today at CTE Now headquarters to talk to us about why he thinks Henrico CTE is important to the students of Henrico County. Mr. Beasley is one of Henrico County's most involved citizens. Mr. Beasley and his wife have fostered over 30 children and have 2 adopted children. They are advocates high risk youth and are very active in their community. 

Pierre Tulowitski, a professor from Ludwigsburg University visited with us and was able to experience many of our summer programs such as  Summer Building Trades, Summer Polytech, our House Building Program, Signing Day and more. Professor Tulowitski teaches the German postgraduate program INEMA, an International Education Leadership, and Management program and is currently a Professor in Residence at the University of Richmond. Before he returned to Germany he was nice enough to join us for a CTE Now Podcast. We talk to him about his CTE visit and about the German education system related to career education compared to the Henrico's Career & Technical Education.

For today's podcast we are meeting with CTE's Sports Medicine instructor, Bobbie Southerd, Debbie Kelo, director of programs at SwimRVA and Tedd Quinn, director of safety school, SwimRVA. We are talking about how SwimRVA helps young people how to swim, their safety programs and how we have partnered with SwimRVA to help some of our students learn to be lifeguards and CPR certified. Listen to this great episode and share it with your friends. www.swimrva.com #swimrva @swimrva 

Gordon and Lori Taylor did not start their careers in the restaurant business but the desire for a change in their lives brought them to start a food truck business that led to their own sit-down restaurant, the Smoke Pit Grill.  Gordon and Lori recently were able to visit the culinary students at Varina High School and teach them how to smoke ribs and serve them from the largest food truck (actually a trailer) in Richmond. We had a great interview with them about their past careers, their visit to Varina HS and why they want to continue to give back to the community through Henrico CTE.  smokepitgrill.com

Victoria Ferris is a teacher at Varina High School and is the Intro to Culinary Arts instructor and also Nutritional Wellness. Her very successful program gets her students ready to work in the restaurant industry. Every week her students prepare meals for many of  Varina's sports teams and caters many Henrico County events. She talks with us about what it takes to become a cook and her experiences in the classroom.

Our guest is Virginia House of Delegates member John McGuire representing the 56th district. Mr. McGuire was born and raised in Henrico. Took the CTE Electronics program and graduated from Henrico High School. After high school he joined the Navy and became a Navy Seal. He is also a successful businessman and has been a delegate since 2018. Mr. McGuire talks to us about how CTE influenced his life and how important he feels it is for today's youth. 

This episode we spend a great half hour with Heather Greenwell and Steve Pierce with the Virginia Association of Roofing Professionals. They speak with us about the importance of attracting young people to the roofing industry. Mark is also the General Manager of the Richmond branch of Baker Roofing.   https://www.varoofingprofessionals.org/   https://bakerroofing.com/ 

This episode is very special. Its subject is about our second annual CTE Signing Day where we recognize and celebrate students who are graduating high school and moving on to the world of work. Like star athletes, our stars are students who are sitting next to their future employer and signing an agreement to start their employment with many eager companies who are looking for trained and experienced young people from Henrico County's  Career and Technical Education programs. There students are receiving great starting pay with quality benefits that put them in a higher category than most young people working today. Last year's event had about a dozen students and about 6 companies. This years we have over 100 students going to work with over 50 employers. Please help us honor these great students and employers by visiting our website, henricocte.com, and finding out more and join us on social media @henricocte (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) and wish these young men and women well as they start their journey to adulthood on April 23rd. They aren't getting a job, they are starting their career. 

This week's guest is Mr. Person, instructor at the ACE Center at Highland Springs Masonry class. Mr. Person talks about the importance of masonry in today's construction and about how students can make it a career.

In this episode we interview Ricky Akers, sight supervisor for James River Exteriors. We talk about the challenges of finding new talent for the masonry industry. We learned a lot from Ricky's 40 years of experience in the masonry industry. Enjoy. https://jamesriverexteriors.com/

In this great episode we interview Carter Iseman, Director of Training and Development for Virginia Asphalt Association, David Helmick, Executive Vice President of Superior Paving, and Sunni Burton, QC Lab Technician for Superior Paving. They talk about their work in the asphalt industry and what they are actively doing to attract young people to their industry and more. For more information about the Virginia Asphalt Association please visit www.vaasphalt.com.

Today's guests are Mark Schultz and Anthony Dejarnette (DJ), instructors in the Automotive Technology program at the ACE Center at Hermitage.

Chris Haynie, Service Manager at Richmond Ford West is our guest for today's episode.

This episode we interview Duane Renick, A/C, Refrigeration & Plumbing instructor at the ACE Center @ Hermitage and Chris Keithly, owner of CK Appliance Repair, former student of Mr. Renick and his brother Brandon who is also a former student of Mr. Renick. Duane discusses the importance of CTE and the ACE Centers and Chris and Brandon talk about how Duane and his teaching influenced them in their career of choice. 

This week we interview Mitch Haddon, President of Colonial Webb, and discuss the importance of CTE students to his and other businesses in todays marketplace. 

Welcome to the first episode of Henrico CTE Now. On today's show we have Mac Beaton, Director of Henrico CTE as our guest talking about the importance of Career and Technical Education (CTE). Join Reshawn Garnett and Mike Roberts and find out what CTE is all about.