Culinary Arts Students Win National Award

The National FCCLA Culinary Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) Contest was held during the National Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Meeting during July in Chicago. The culinary competition was held at Kendall College, Evanston, Illinois where 33 teams of three people participated from across the United States. Oklahoma won the national contest with a score of 98.6.

The team members pictured are, Kathryn Irwin (L) and Andrea Dixon, (R) both of Francis Tuttle Technology Center, and Christopher Bullis, Tulsa Technology Center.

The students prepared the following menu in one hour with thirty minutes to plan: spinach salad with Dijon mustard vinaigrette, sautéed salmon with orzo, asparagus, and tomato relish, and the dessert was hot cheesecakes crepes.

More than 100 individuals participated in teams of three. Each team received 30 minutes to plan their preparation schedules and then had 60 minutes to prepare and plate their food.

Students were judged on the following criteria: appearance, planning, food production, food presentation, and team evaluation. The students also had the opportunity for the following scholarships:

Culinary Institute of America - $4,000 renewable for four years for each of the three Oklahoma team members.

Johnson and Wales - $1,000 renewable for four years for each of the three Oklahoma team members.

Kendall College also provided a scholarship if students attended Kendall College.

Instructors of the students are Michael Yip, Tulsa Technology Center, and Claes Passmark, Francis Tuttle Technology Center. Ms. Georgia Lamirand, Francis Tuttle Technology Center accompanied the students to the National FCCLA contest.

Janet Hawkins Receives Career Education Award

Stillwater resident Janet Hawkins, career information specialist at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, recently received the 2004 American Association for Career Education (AACE) Award of Excellence Citation.

The award was given to Hawkins for the development of The Career Activity File – Counseling Tools for a Guidance Program K-12 that is made available each year by the state CareerTech agency for elementary through high school teaches and counselors. The booklet includes activities and integrated lessons to help observe Career Development Month in November and to enhance the classroom or guidance curriculum throughout the school year.

Teachers and counselors may receive a copy of this award-winning booklet at www.careertech.org/guidance to download a copy along with past issues.

Red River Superintendent Honored by Stephens County Bar Association

Jerry Morris, the Superintendent at Red River Technology Center in Duncan became the 39th recipient of the Liberty Bell Award presented by the Stephens County Bar Association at the annual Law Day luncheon held on Friday, May 7, 2004.

The Law Day theme was “Winning Equality by Law.” The theme is recognition of the 50th Anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education in which the Supreme Court found that “separate but equal” violated the 14th Amendment.

The Stephens County Bar Association presents the Liberty Bell Award to an outstanding layperson whose character and service to the community “strengthens the system of constitutional democracy and promotes the American Dream.”

The selection of career educator Jerry Morris was a fitting choice.
Morris’ lifetime dedication has benefited thousands of students through his daily efforts to better the lives of area citizens.

Career Voyages-Career Clusters Go National!

Congratulations to Kelly Arrington, Janet Hawkins, Robin Schott and their entire team! Their sample plans of study have been referenced and cited on the US DOL Career Voyages Web site. http://www.careervoyages.com/students-careerclusters.cfm

Students can use career clusters to investigate a wide range of career choices. The career cluster approach makes it easier for students to understand the relevance of their required courses and helps them select their elective courses more wisely.

Francis Tuttle Career Excellence Award to Charlotte Edwards

Charlotte Edwards is the 2004 recipient of the Francis Tuttle Career Excellence Award, the highest honor OkACTE gives. The award was presented at the 37th Annual Career and Technology Education Summer Conference held recently at the Tulsa Convention Center.

Edwards, former high school marketing education instructor at Muskogee, Pryor and Tahlequah has served as the executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education (OkACTE) since 1984. She will be retiring from this position on Dec. 31.

The award was established in 1985 in honor of Francis Tuttle, former state director of the Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education - now called CareerTech. It is designed to recognize individuals whose careers exemplify Tuttle’s dedication to the development of people through career and technology education.

See other award winners in the OkACTE Advocate at www.okacte.org/

Culinary Arts Student Student Selected for Scholarship

Oscar Trujillo, Locust Grove, a recent graduate of the Culinary Arts program at Northeast Technology Center, has been selected to receive a Morris J.W. Gaebe Entrepreneurial tuition scholarship.

The scholarship is renewable for four years totaling $20,000 to attend any one of the five locations of Johnson and Wales University. In addition he was also awarded a Johnson and Wales University Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) scholarship in the amount of $2000 per year renewable for four years, bringing his total award to a possible $28,000 over four years.

Trujillo won the scholarship on the merits of a project submitted to FCCLA through the Leaders at Work in Food Production and Services national program. His award winning project was to translate an elementary-level book, "Buddy Bear's Hand washing Troubles" by Marjorie T. Cooke, from English to Spanish.

From there, he chose to make his translation into a video so as to reach as many Spanish-speaking children as possible. Donning a bear's head, he became "El Pequeno Oso," "Little Bear,” and with the help of two fellow bilingual students, Elizabeth Tirado, who served as narrator, and Charity Robertson, who played the role of Mama Oso, the video was produced by the Office of Public Information at the tech center. The video will be sent to the book publishers for review for possible national distribution.