We Dare You To Not Laugh At This Video

When Banks High School senior Korey Kelly was tasked with making a recruitment video for his Animal Sciences class, he turned to a classic marketing adage: You can't go wrong with a man in a bunny suit.

Check out the hilarious finished product above, and see how Korey was able to use humor to get his message across. (We've watched it about 15 times here at PAVTEC, and we're still giggling.)

Local Leaders Working To Make Oregon A "CTE Star"

On Tuesday, June 30th, a group of 45 movers and shakers from the education and business worlds gathered together at PCC Sylvania. The goal? To form a professional learning community in order to strengthen our regional CTE programs and form a cohesive vision for the future.

The meeting, facilitated by Solutions Tree associate Regina Owens, helped clarify the challenges we face, the successes we've achieved, and the goals we want to focus on in the coming years.

Here are a few of the accomplishments that our CTE regional leaders are most proud of:

• CTE programs are diverse and in high-demand
• Programs of Study completed and approved
• CTE classes keep kids in school
  
• Improved access to programs
• Partnerships with industry and post-secondary institutions
  
• Award-winning programs
• Awesome instructors
• Quality of CTE programs despite adversity

And here are some of their goals for the near future:

• Oregon becoming a "CTE Star"--a model in career training for the country (and the world!)
• Create and communicate a unified message about the importance of CTE
• Better vertical integration between secondary and post-secondary
• Creation of a tracking system to see the success of our programs
• Develop stronger partnerships with local businesses
• Technical degrees not seen as “less than.”

This meeting forged important connections between high school teachers, administrators, Portland Community College, the Oregon Department of Education, and the local business community. Together, this group is working hard to maintain past success and put these exciting new goals into action.

Westview Girls In Tech

Westview High School film students Gabby Clark, Olivia Wheeler, and Matt O'Hara produced this sleek recruitment video to encourage more girls to sign up for career and technical classes.

Banks FFA Does It Again!

Banks FFA Dairy Cattle Judging Team picture: (left right) Nick Evers, Mitchell Evers, Gerritt Schmidlkofer, Mathias Schmidlkofer, Eric Evers, LeeAnn Pallett, Stefani Evers, Abby Evers

For the third time in four years, the Banks FFA Dairy Cattle Judging Team has earned top honors by placing first at the State FFA Dairy Cattle Judging Contest. Banks now gets to represent Oregon at the National Dairy Cattle Evaluation Career Development Event this coming October at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

On Monday, Banks FFA was among about 20 teams from around the state to descend on the Oregon State University Dairy Research Center for an afternoon of evaluating dairy cattle. The event consists of evaluating six classes of live heifers and cows based on current industry standards, evaluating the genetic merit of two more classes of animals, then giving two sets of oral reasons, where the student orally describes the class and defends their placing to a judge. Even if a student does not planning pursuing a career in the dairy industry, the skills gained through participation in this event will benefit them for the rest of their life.

Banks FFA has developed quite a reputation for dairy cattle judging over the past few years. After winning the state contest in the early 90s, Banks FFA took a 15-year hiatus from dairy judging, and then started a team back up in 2007. In 2007, the team placed 8th at the state contest, and started a tradition of success that continues today. The following year in 2008, Banks dairy judging team placed first at the state level, then went on to place 15th at the national level. They followed that success with a first place finish in 2009, and a second place finish in 2010.

Along with the first place team performance this year, four members placed in the top 10 individually. Eric Evers placed first overall, Mathias Schmidlkofer placed 7th, Gerritt Schmidlkofer placed 9th, & Stefani Evers placed 10th. The team will be working hard this summer and next fall to prepare for the national contest in October.

Meek ProTech: A School Unlike Any Other

Meek ProTech is an alternative high school in NE Portland. Wondering what sets it apart from other schools? Check out this video to find out.

Video created by Meek ProTech students Karla Carballo, Keisha McGuffy, and Raymone Kennedy for PCC's Social Media Outreach Project.