Junior Rotarians

 

Recently at Vantage Career Center, we had the opportunity to select our Junior Rotarians for the year. Each year the Rotary club of Van Wert allows a select group of students from Van Wert High School, Lincolnview High School, Crestview High School and Vantage Career Center to participate in their weekly Rotary meetings. Vantage is allowed to send two students each month to their meetings. It is a great opportunity for the students to network with a wide variety of business professionals and gain a vast amount of knowledge. The students will also be eligible to apply for a four year scholarship from the Rotary. 

The student selection criteria is as follows:

Resident of Van Wert County and a graduating senior

Maintained a 3.0 GPA

Plan on attending an institution of higher education

Demonstrate voluntary service to their school, community, church and family

Demonstrate a degree of maturity, self-reliance, self-discipline and resourcefulness.

Well rounded with a broad set of interests

Demonstrates leadership potential

Other personal qualities or strengths

I am happy to announce this year's Jr. Rotarians representing Vantage Career Center. They are: Corbin Army (Ind Mech), Leigha Bendele (Health Tech), Dylan Buzard (Network Systems), Jorja Forwerck (Early Childhood), Evan Hefner (Network Systems), Juliana McClure (Sports Exercise), Brooke Miller (Sports Exercise), Lily Price (Health Tech), Caleb Shobe (Criminal Justice), Saige Waltmire (Sports Exercise), Payton Waltmire (Cosmetology), Riona Workman (Carpentry).

This past Tuesday, the Rotary club invited all the Jr. Rotarians from each school and their principals and/or counselors to attend a kickoff meeting. This meeting was to explain to the students what the Rotary is all about and get them comfortable with coming to the meetings. It was such a great meeting and a real benefit for the students and myself. I am amazed at all the different projects that the Rotary has been involved with in the Van Wert community. They have poured so much money and time into making Van Wert a better place to live and a place that anyone would want to come back to. They have donated over $600,000 since the year 2000 (as of 2020). I was also amazed that this particular club in Van Wert has been around for 102 years and each president of the club serves for only one year…and they have never had the same person as president more than once. That means they have had 102 different people volunteer to be the club president. That just astounds me and says so much for the club and the people of Van Wert. 

I personally want to thank the Van Wert Rotary Club for inviting us to the meeting yesterday. I want to thank you for all the time and money you invest in the community but also in our students. Thank you for being such a fine example for our students and our future leaders. The club talks about “Service above self “ and they certainly show that by their actions. Thank you again Van Wert Rotary and Congratulations to all the Junior Rotarians for 2022-2023.

Fall Sports Picture Day

 Today we celebrated our fall sport athletes. This is a tradition we have done around Vantage for quite some time now. We ask all students who participate in any fall sport at their home school to wear their jerseys during the school day. Mrs. Owens also invites them all down to the commons area for a group picture. As you can see by today's picture, we have quite a large group of athletes that attend Vantage Career Center this year. We had 123 (I think I counted correctly) student athletes that showed up for the picture and we know there are others who may have missed. What a tremendous group of students and athletes. We are so proud of all of you here at Vantage and can't thank you enough for making the choice to come to Vantage.

I know that every staff member is so proud of all of you and we wish you the best throughout this fall season. I was a coach for baseball for ten years and I know the commitment it takes to play in any sport while in school. You are in school until 2:40 and then head right to practice at your school and usually don't get home until after 6:00 pm. There are many long hot days during the months preceding the season and many days during the season where temperatures are in the 90's. This says a lot about all of you as individuals and as students. Your dedication and commitment to what you do will go along way, not only on the field but also in life. Personally I want to thank all of you for attending Vantage and showing other students at your home school that if they play sports, are involved in band or cheer, that they can also chose Vantage for their Junior and Senior years. Good luck to all of you this weekend and the rest of your season. 

Student Appreciation Day 2022

Tomorrow, September 9th is our Student Appreciation Day. This is such an exciting day around campus with so many activities going on in the afternoon. Vantage has always used this day to let our students know how much we appreciate them and the fact that they chose Vantage Career Center for their final two years of school. I truly hope that each student here has felt that they are really appreciated by all of our faculty and staff. As I have said before, we realize how hard this was for so many of you to leave familiar and comfortable situations at your home school and select Vantage for your final years of high school.

Tomorrow we will also be celebrating our fall sports spirit day. It will be amazing to see all the athletes, cheerleaders, band members, etc. that have decided to come to Vantage and still stay active at their home school. I know that is truly a commitment on your part. We appreciate it! To the students who spoke with me the first week of school who were scared and were thinking about going back but hung in there and now are enjoying everyday. We appreciate it! To all the students who show up on time and work hard everyday. We appreciate it! I hope you get the message I am conveying. We appreciate each and everyone of you for choosing Vantage. We promise to make your stay here rewarding. If you show up everyday and work hard, you will have an awesome experience. 

Like I said earlier, tomorrow will be a busy day. The events will take place shortly after lunch and it looks to be a beautiful day. I always enjoy the car & truck show and look forward to that. We will have refreshments, corn hole, climbing wall, photo booth, bungee run, cards, chess, checkers, Wii dance, wacky trikes, music and more. Please be kind and courteous during this time and enjoy every bit of the entertainment. This is an event that Mrs. Owens and the student ambassadors and other staff have worked very hard to put together. I hope you meet new friends, talk with staff and understand that we are grateful that you chose Vantage. Thanks so much and enjoy!