VC Innovates Honors Educators and Business Leaders

By Tim Pompey

The Ventura County Office of Education’s VC Innovates sponsored an awards luncheon on Thursday, May 4 to recognize outstanding individuals who have made an impact on career technical education (CTE) in Ventura County.

Tiffany Morse, Executive Director of VC Innovates, explained how career technical education has expanded rapidly in the last three years in Ventura County.

“We’ve had a significant revitalizing of career and technical education,” she said. “We have 118 career pathways in Ventura County. They go from middle school to high school to community college. We serve more than 10,000 students at the high school level. Two-thousand students at the middle school level, and thousands of students at the community college level.”

The awards luncheon celebrated those who have made important contributions to the advancement of CTE. “We’re celebrating our bright and shining stars, the people who are really committed to helping students find their path for the future,” Morse noted. “We have business partners. We have high school teachers, middle school teachers, and community college faculty.”

For Morse, the creation of pathways to more careers means students have more career options to choose from, whether they attend a four-year-university or a community college career track.

“I am passionate about having kids have options,” she asserted. “Students will go to college, they may have other post-secondary training options, but at the end of the day, I’m committed to helping all students find a job that they like, something they are passionate about, something where they can make a difference.”

VC Innovates was created as a collaborative endeavor to bring together educators, businesses, and community partners to apply innovative approaches to the education experience, and seamlessly prepare future workers and leaders for the workforce.

Stan Mantooth, Superintendent, Ventura County Office of Education, Tiffany Morse, Executive Director, VC Innovates, Rick Post, Vice Chancellor, Ventura County Community College District (photo credit/Tim Pompey)

This year’s winners were:

 Community Colleges

• Ed Garcia, Moorpark College, Developer and Instructor, Moorpark College Computer Networking Systems Engineering Program
• Marcelo Cabral, Oxnard College, Career/CTE Counselor
• Ralph Fernandez, Ventura College, Architect Instructor

 High Schools

• Todd Gernheuser, ACE Charter High School, Engineering Curriculum
• Daniel Bell, Thousand Oaks High School, Construction Curriculum
• Bill Guzman, Fillmore High School, Auto Shop
• Ray Hebel, Moorpark High School, Choir and Musical Theatre Arts Program
• Susan Allen, Oak View High School, Child Development
• Jan Quilantang, Oxnard High School, Academic/Lead Coordinator, GTech Academy
• Michael Swank, Nordhoff High School, Graphic Arts Program
• Gloria Rodriguez, Santa Paula High School, Engineering Curriculum with expansion to include Computing with Robotics and Advanced Robotics
• Tammy Harter-Hohensee, Simi Valley High School, Medical Health Career Academy
• Scott Manninen, Buena High School, Building, Construction, and Cabinetry Program

 Middle Schools

• Javier Mena, Briggs School, Engineering and Design Pathway
• Paul Hanson, Los Cerritos Middle School, Engineering in Wood Program
• Laurie Merrill, Fillmore Middle School, Agriculture Business Elective Class
• Edgar Reyes, E.O. Green Junior High School, Art and Technology Program
• Nathan King, Chaparral Middle School, Video Games, Robotics, and Product Development
• Cecil Baumgartner, Juan L. Soria School, Afterschool Engineering Program
• Michael Swank, Matilija Junior High School, Graphic Design Courses
• Hugo Guzman, Rio de Valle Middle School, Robotics Classes
• Terria Duran, Isbell Middle School, Math and Science Classes, Freshmen College and Career Readiness
• Dan Shuster, Royal High School, Coding Classes for Elementary and Middle Schools
• Scott Lehman, Cabrillo Middle School, Woodshop

 Business Partners

• Henry Gonzales, County of Ventura Agriculture Commissioner
• Michael Fusco, General Clerk, Reservations, Warner Brother Studios
• Michele Newell, Public Affairs Specialist, Aera Energy, LLC
• Brian O’Rell, President, Vanderhost Brothers
• Nick Deitch, Founding Principal, Main Street Architects and Planners
• Diego Ruvalcaba, President, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Ventura College Student Chapter
• American Medical Response
• Jim Cathcart, Director of Human Resources, County of Ventura
• Mike Pettit, Chief Information Officer, County of Ventura
• Josh Sarfaty, Divisional Practice Lead, Aerotek
• Phillis Thrower, Program Manager, Naval Base Ventura County, Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division
• Sergeant Cecil Valenti, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office
• Ken Duttweiler, Owner, Duttweiler Performance

One of this year’s Pathfinder Award Winners, Micheal Swank, Design & Media Instructor at both Nordhoff High School and Matilija Jr. High School, recalled how difficult it was for him to launch a career after graduating from college with a Bachelors in Fine Arts. He had to transition on the fly and learn the business and software end of graphic arts on the job. He knows how difficult it can be to catch up to the industry. He hopes his programs will give students better options for their career paths.

“I don’t want my students to have to do that,” he said. “I’d like them to be a little more prepared then I was when I graduated from college.”

For Christine Schieferle, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services at Santa Paula Unified School District, being part of the VC Innovates consortium means giving students at Renaissance Alternative High School a chance to discover their own capabilities.

“It’s changed the opportunities for all of our kids,” said Schieferle, “but especially alternative education kids who in the past haven’t been successful in high school and needed an alternative.”

Phillis Thrower, Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division Program Manager, received a pathfinder award for her work with Aviation/Stem at the Naval Base Ventura County. She is one of VC Innovates valuable business partners.

“I love what I do,” she said. “I love working with the students. I love sharing what we have to offer at Pt. Mugu with our students from our middle schools and high schools.”

She recognizes how valuable it is to develop future talent for jobs on the base. “Our kids are our future,” she said. “We also send engineers, scientists, mathematicians out to the schools. We send them out to represent Pt. Mugu in things like science and engineering judging contests and robotics.”

Stan Mantooth, Superintendent for the Ventura County Office of Education, asked a critical question to the audience: “What do we do it all for?”

Mantooth sees CTE as part of the future business development in Ventura County. “What we’re really doing is preparing them for you,” he answered. “We’re preparing that raw material for our future, for your future, for everyone’s future, and it’s incumbent on us to work closely, the last three years in particular, with our business partners in the community, knowing what they need by way of that raw material, and what we need from them to help us make what we do for kids more valuable and more relevant.”

For more information about VC Innovates, visit their website at http://vcinnovates.org or call Dave Schermer, Communications Manager, at (805) 383-1922.

Tim Pompey, a freelance writer who has done lots of local affairs and entertainment/cultural writing, lives in Oxnard. Tim is also a fiction writer (Facebook Page). You can learn about his books on Amazon.com: amazon.com/author/booksbytimpompey.

Mr. Pompey’s Newest Book:  

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