Tis the Season

What an exciting time around Vantage this week and next. Mrs. Grothouse and her VCC class are leading the school's Toss A Toy drive this year. There are many families in the area that need help this season and all of us at Vantage can help. Earlier in the year they held a jeans day to start raising money. On December 9th, next Friday, they will be holding fund raising events. It will be the ugly sweater contest where you can enter for $1 and prizes will be awarded based on the most ugly sweater, the ugliest Christmas sweater and the OMG what where you thinking sweater (school appropriate please). It should be a fun day. It will also be $1 jeans day. We are also having a penny stall in all the academic classes. Remember to fill those buckets with pennies so your instructor will have to count them all during your class, thus stall them from teaching. Cosmetology students will be selling colored hair extensions at lunch for $2. A former VCC elf has set a challenge that if we raise $1000, he will donate $500. As always the tree is up on our stage and if you would like to donate a toy, please just drop it off in the sleigh. Vantage has made a huge difference for little kids in the past and we hope to continue this tradition. Please think about donating and enjoy the season!

I also want to remind everyone about the book fair coming to the library starting this Friday and going until December 9th. Mrs Knodel has been doing this book fair for a lot of years and what a great success it is. What a great idea for doing some early Christmas shopping. All books are 30% off and there is NO TAX!!!  There will be more books than you could possibly imagine and one that is just right for that special person on your list. Why not pick up a book you would really enjoy and bury yourself in it over the holidays.

I hope everyone is preparing for the holidays in their own special way and looking forward to the excitement around school. However, I want to remind you that we still have "End of Course" exams next week. I ask that if you will be taking any exams that you study hard and take your time. For those of you that do not have any exams to take next week, we will be running on a two hour delay all next week. Have a great week and thanks for reading!

A Good Friend

Normally I write these blogs for the students but today it is written for the many staff members and friends of Mr. Kent Taylor. Kent was an instructor here at Vantage Career Center for thirty plus years and substitute taught for the last two years since his retirement. Kent passed away on Thursday, November 10th. I feel so fortunate to have worked with Kent and have been able to call him my friend. I can honestly say that Kent was one of the smartest men I have ever met. As many of you know, Kent taught our Electricity program and also taught some adult education electrical programs.

I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Kent about his program but also electronics. When I first started here I remember talking about my ¨ham radio" hobby with Kent. All of a sudden he starts talking about my equipment, radio frequencies, antennas and so many other topics related to amateur radio, that I would have sworn he was a licensed operator. However, that is just how Kent was. He knew so much about so many topics that it absolutely amazed me. Through the years I´ve learned to rely on Kent whenever I had a question about something I was working on at home. I knew he would have the answer for me or be able to come up with it very quickly. We had nine trade and industry programs here when Kent was working and I swear he could have ran everyone of them. Kent worked on cars, painted them, did welding, machining, PLCś (Program Logic Controllers), construction work and in his spare time he enjoyed drag racing, truck pulls and building engines.

Some of the best memories I have of Kent are back in the old building when he shared an office with Mel White, Mike Klutka and Kevin Van Oss. If I happened to stop by their office during lunch, I was guaranteed to have a stimulating conversation with all of them about the latest issue in the news, and as we would say, ¨we would solve the worlds problems¨. Once we got Kent up on his soapbox, there was no stopping him. Kent would get excited about things because he cared so deeply about his community and this area. He wouldn´t let any politician pull the wool over his eyes. Kent knew more about what was going on in the world then the politicians did.

The one thing I know Kent cared more about than most any issue was career tech and the success of his students. Kent had a real passion for career tech and was really ahead of his time when it came to the importance of a career tech education. Kent also cared so much about his students and their ability to get a good job after high school or even go onto college. He pushed the students because he believed in them and knew how much potential they had.

I carry a black notebook around with me so I can write down things I have to do. On the first page of this notebook are some questions I had for Kent the next time I saw him. It was in regards to an Edenpure heater that he has been telling me to get for two years now. I already miss my friend and I know so many others do to. I have mentioned in my blogs before a poem that was called ¨Success¨. A couple of the lines say that ¨...to leave the world a bit better; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived- this is to have succeeded¨. Well, Kent succeeded beyond any measure and he certainly made my world better. Goodbye my friend.

Life Lessons

I heard another neat country song the other day that I really liked and once again, it got me thinking about our students. The song is by Eric Church and it is titled "Three Year Old". A couple of the lines in the song go like this: "A fishing pole sinks faster than a tackle box. Nothing turns a day around like licking a mixing bowl. I learned that from a three year old." The song is about Eric Church's three year old son and all the things he has learned from him that are so relevant to life in general. If you get the chance, I hope you will give it a listen. I think you will really enjoy it even if you aren't a big country fan.

Like I said earlier, this got me thinking about the students around here and all the things I have learned from talking with them and observing them. I learned that they love when you say happy birthday to them on that special day. I learned that they really don't mind when Mr. Miller asks them during lunch how their day is going. I learned that the students enjoy telling you what they are working on in their lab and showing off their new skills. I have learned that many of them just want to be kids and laugh and have fun but that's not always how their life is. Many of our students seem like they are shy but love when an adult shows concern about them and their future. I have learned that they have hopes and dreams but sometimes need someone to fuel them. The students like to be rewarded with "good as gold" but it is often those students who feel they don't deserve it, that they were "just doing what was right". I have learned that our students love the Friday lunchtime pictures that Mr. Verhoff, Mrs Hall and Mrs. Wilhem put up on the big screen each week.

I think that the main thing that I have learned from so many of our students is that they are great people. They care about others, they hurt when others hurt and they have concerns just like us adults. All of us at Vantage work hard to prepare our students for the "real world" and to make sure they are going to be successful. We provide them the knowledge and information that can lead them down that path. However, I think the one thing that all of us can provide to each of them, and the one thing that they seem to need, is kindness and caring. As we continue to offer this, I am positive we will reap the rewards of seeing some awesome students go through our school. And as a benefit we will learn a lot of life lessons along the way and they will come from the 16, 17 and 18 year old crowd. I keep a note in my office that states: "Don't let the importance of your work crowd out your concern for human need". I need to be reminded of that every once in awhile and it's nice to know that I might even be reminded by a three year old.