Two Calhoun County High School graduating seniors have been honored by the South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of Career and Technical Education.
Sanaa Haynes and Quinton Dantzler are this year’s Lower Savannah Region Technology Champion of the Year and Work-Based Learning Student of the Year, respectively.
Receiving regional honors for their work in career and technical education are Dee Edwards, a counselor at Cope Area Career Center and this year’s Lower Savannah Region CTE School Counselor of the Year, and Cathy Smith, a career specialist at Williston-Elko High School who was named Lower Savannah Region CTE Career Specialist of the Year. Smith is also the 2020 South Carolina CTE Career Specialist of the Year.
Haynes became a Project Lead the Way completer while maintaining a 4.82 GPA and taking CCHS honors program courses. During a summer program at Howard University, she won first place in the CISCAP – Computer Information Systems Career Awareness Program – category for creating an app. She has medaled in the Marketing Team Decision, Entrepreneurship Team Decision and Sales Project Written events at SC DECA state competitions.
Haynes is a member of the Helen Sheffield Federated Girls Club, and volunteers at a local soup kitchen, for Relay for Life, and with several other community organizations and events. She participated in the Medical Experience (MedEx) Academy Tier 1 program, which exposed her to many jobs opportunities in the medical field. Her goal is to become a hospital pharmacist.
Dantzler was the only high school student in the class when he joined Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College’s Professional Truck Driving Training program this spring. He started the program with his commercial driver’s license permit in hand while juggling his final semester of high school and working part-time at IGA in Elloree. By the time he graduates from CCHS, he will have a CDL and can begin working in the field.
Dantzler credits his job at IGA with giving him many of the tools necessary to succeed in the future, including customer service, time management and problem-solving skills, as well inventory management experience. Dantzler hopes to own a trucking business one day.
Edwards works closely with seven Orangeburg and Bamberg County high schools, as well as OCtech and Denmark Technical College, to ensure her students have access to everything they need to succeed. She was instrumental in getting the state’s first CDL Class A truck driving course offered in a high school at CACC.
Edwards’ partnerships with agencies at the local and state level have benefitted her students and the community, increasing the number and caliber of students who attend CACC to receive jobs skills and training before graduating from high school.
Smith helps ensure her students are prepared to enter the workforce after high school by collaborating with teachers on resume writing, interviewing and soft skills lessons; conducting student career assessments; organizing monthly Life Skills Days during which students learn such real-world skills as how to tie a tie, change a tire or sew a button; and establishing job shadowing and/or work-based learning experiences for all WEHS students.
Smith is a co-founder and current secretary of BEC – Business, Education and Community – an advisory board made up of representatives from local businesses and industry, community members and the school system that provides job opportunities and scholarships for WEHS students. In addition to organizing the school’s Career Fair, she sponsors the Student Government Association and is actively involved with many other school activities, including FAFSA Night, Honors Night and the Senior Picnic.
Edwards works closely with seven Orangeburg and Bamberg County high schools, as well as OCtech and Denmark Technical College, to ensure her students have access to everything they need to succeed. She was instrumental in getting the state’s first CDL Class A truck driving course offered in a high school at CACC.
Edwards’ partnerships with agencies at the local and state level have benefitted her students and the community, increasing the number and caliber of students who attend CACC to receive jobs skills and training before graduating from high school.
Honorees will be recognized during the 2020 Education and Business Summit July 20-23 in Greenville.
