Sentinel students find gold at nationals

ORLANDO — Seneca County was well represented at this year's Educators Rising national competition, held June 26–29 in Orlando, Florida. Careers in Education instructor Cathy Thomas shared that six students advanced to the national level after the state competition in March. Thomas noted participants are "pretty proud" of the results. This year marks the tenth year of the Educators Rising program, and Vanguard-Sentinel continues to excel in preparing future educators to enter the teaching profession. Students graduating from the Careers in Education program tend to be advanced when entering college, and most who compete at the Educators Rising national level are excited to participate in subsequent years. Exploring support services Tiffin Columbian High School student Liberty Heilman took first place for her Exploring Support Services project. "The gold placement means that the judges could see how much work I put into my competition and how much passion I had for my presentation," Heilman said. She chose the category because going to the library was her favorite part of elementary school, and the school librarian in high school helped her make book choices when needed. "I decided I wanted to explore the idea of becoming a librarian to make the school library as magical as I felt it was in elementary," she shared. The information she gathered by shadowing Columbian's librarian, Mrs. Focht, helped Heilman prepare for her interview, she said, and presenting her project at both state and nationals helped her overcome anxiety about public speaking. Heilman plans to attend college and major in either English or math, and "will be using the presentation training that I learned so that I am a better presenter for my class." Teacher created materials Mya Carrick, of Seneca East, received first place in the Teacher Created Materials category. "My project was on a Career Escape room called Pathway to Possibilities," Carrick said. "I chose this topic because Sentinel is a Career Center and I thought this would be a good idea to help students figure out what they would want to do in their future." She liked "the idea of an escape room," and creating the setup for it was the best part of her project. She was challenged by the feedback she received from the state judges, but the new board she created for nationals resulted in her success. "Gold placement means to me that I have worked hard to create a project that would be successful in a classroom," Carrick shared. She plans to attend Heidelberg University and pursue a degree in early childhood education. Participating in Educators Rising and attending Sentinel has helped her "with time management and creativity" and she is better prepared for her future with the knowledge and understanding she has gained. Interactive bulletin board - secondary Kalyn England, of Mohawk, and Caroline Lewis, of Columbian, partnered to create an Interactive Bulletin Board for middle and high school students and earned first place at nationals. "Gold placement means so much to me because of all the time and effort Caroline and I put into our project," England said. She plans to become an early childhood teacher and "will be using my great training from Mrs. Thomas and the skills I have obtained in the classroom and with competition in my classroom in the future." Striving to win gold at nationals with Educators Rising requires dedication to your project and program, England said. "It takes commitment and extra time." She chose the interactive bulletin board project because "it would be fun to incorporate a game show" and work on it with a friend. Lewis said her focus for the project was "to teach financial literacy," believing it is an important topic that is vital for high school students to understand. The best part of the project was "getting to see all of our hard work come together and pay off at nationals," and receiving a gold medal made all that work worth it. The most challenging issue for Lewis was the teamwork required to create a board that incorporated both her ideas and those of England, but the end result was a success. Educators Rising and Sentinel's Careers in Education program have been very influential in her education, and she is grateful for the support of teacher Cathy Thomas. "I would not have come this far if it weren't for my teacher," Lewis said. Her plans include attending college to become a high school history teacher, and she will "use the training that I gained from this program and competition in my classroom some day." Interactive bulletin board – elementary Students Ana-Jean Dettermen, of Mohawk, and Leann Fetro, of New Riegel, also competed at nationals, earning second place with their Interactive Bulletin Board project for elementary school. "Our award meant a lot to me. Even though we didn't get first place, I was still happy. I was just overall happy of everything I had accomplished," Dettermen said. She will be pursuing a double major in early childhood education and art education at Bowling Green State University this fall, and said she will use the skills gained through Educators Rising and her Sentinel teacher, Mrs. Thomas, in her classroom in the future. Detterman and her partner, Leann, love working with little kids, so the decision to focus their project on kindergarten or first grade was an easy one. After deciding their project activity would involve using tubes, she said, "we wanted to put our own spin on it," and the idea was born to "have the kids do addition with our tubes." Dettermen and Fetro both said working together as partners was the best part of the project. Fetro, who also plans to pursue a degree in education in college, said she and Dettermen "are both looking for early childhood as a future, so to do an elementary interactive board would make the most sense." "We both did an internship with first-graders and kindergartners and thought our board would best be used by kindergartners," Fetro shared.