On December 8th, 2010 Wasatch Front Region held a Health Science Career Event. Students from all over the Region attended workshops relating to health science careers such as Surgical Tech, Clinical Lab Sciences, Emergency Medicine, Nursing/CNA, Medical Anatomy/Cadaver Lab, & Dental Hygiene. Students received educational and career information and had a chance to see first hand what these career fields are all about. Thanks to all who participated and helped in anyway. We will do this again next year. Make sure you let us know if you want to participate again!

- Emily

In Weber District, we go to great lengths to drive home the concept of PATHWAYS to our students. In our minds, after educating the students, the next step is to educate and incorporate our Business Partners about Pathways and the significant role they play in making it all work. Within Work-Based Learning and its connection to the business world comes the opportunity for all of this Pathway emphasis to come to fruition. The Internship Program provides the capstone for our Pathway Completers and once and for all answers the age old question “When will I ever use this?”

So, how do we bring this full circle? One thing that has worked great and created a ton of interest in our district is our annual Business Partner Breakfast. Each year we invite every Business Partner who has hosted a student for a fieldtrip, job shadow, full blown internship, or any potential partners to join us for breakfast and a “demonstration of results”. We have several of the students who have completed or are currently involved with an outstanding work based learning experience to share, with the group, what this experience has meant to them and how it has benefitted their life and future.

The Partnership Breakfast works great because it highlights the Students, Business Partners, State Pathways and Work-Based Learning. Student Interns speak of their experiences on the job while highlighting Businesses who are ever-searching for ways to give back to their communities (at no expense to them). And the real beauty of it is: you have them all in one place to celebrate them all.

In just over an hour you have fed them, educated them on Pathways, and left them with a feeling of having made a difference in the lives of students…the ones who don’t have Interns will be coming to you to become a part of your program…for CTE, the RELEVANCY card has been played, it validates the whole process, … it’s a win, win, win, win.

After nearly 12 years of effort by DATC, including extensive work with the community to secure donations and with Legislature to gain state funding, totaling $15 million, the new Haven J. and Bonnie Rae Barlow Technology Building was opened April 1, 2009. The new 63,000 square foot building provides enhanced facilities for DATC’s high demand technical programs including Diesel/Heavy Duty Technology, Machine Tool Technology, Architectural & Engineering Design, Electronics, Mechatronics, Information Technology, and Web & Graphic Design.

“This facility will return thousands of highly-skilled and technically competent employees to the local economy and provide for significant economic development for Northern Utah and return to the taxpayers for thisinvestment,” says Michael J. Bouwhuis, DATC Campus President.

We invite you to take a personal tour of this new building. Please contact Allen Turner at 801-593-2399 to schedule your tour today.

For the past two years Julie Banta and Cathy Bell, Business Education teachers at Northridge High, have been site coordinators for the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) site located at the school for the Internal Revenue Service.  This year, thirty-two (32) advanced accounting students completed 30 hours of tax preparation training and all passed the IRS Tax Preparation Test at a level of 80% or higher.  This qualified them to become IRS certified tax preparers.

Cathy and Julie are dedicated teachers who show commitment to their students by providing opportunities for them to expand their knowledge and skill.  They exemplify the very best of their profession.  They volunteered their time after school to train students to pass the IRS test, use TaxWise software, and then supervised the Northridge VITA site which operated every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 1-5 p.m.  This ran from February 4th through April 15th.  The Northridge site completed 483 tax returns which generated over $640,000 in federal tax refunds for their clients this year.  This service, provided free of charge, saved approximately $38,000 in filing fees for the community.  On April 15th alone, they completed 51 tax returns.  On many occasions, people were lined up when they opened the door for business.

Northridge, the only VITA site staffed by high school students in Utah, had the lowest rejection rate of electronically transmitted tax returns.  For the past two years, Northridge has processed more returns than any other VITA site in Northern Utah (a total of seven sites).   This is quite an accomplishment for high school students and is a direct result of the dedication of these two fine teachers to their students and the quality of instruction these students received.  Students were not only trained in tax preparation but were also taught how to deal with the public, handle confidential information, and to be courteous and helpful at all times.  The IRS has received numerous compliments from taxpayers who have had their returns prepared by Northridge students and have appreciated the courteous and professional manner which these students exhibit as they work with the public.

In addition to being site coordinators with VITA, Cathy Bell and Julie Banta advise the Northridge FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) chapter.  Their students are members of FBLA and recently competed at the FBLA state competition in two events, Community Service and Partnership with Business.  Both projects were based on VITA and took 2nd and 3rd places at state respectively.   Julie stated the following about her experiences with VITA this year: "I feel a great sense of accomplishment being able to help train and work with high school students to know how to file income tax returns.  Tax law is complicated and these students did very well."

What a tremendous experience this has been to help students move along their career pathway and be more realistically prepared to transition to post secondary education and/or employment.